Film Music Reporter

Netflix has announced today that Branford Marsalis is set to compose the music for the upcoming drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The film is directed by George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues) and stars Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo and Michael Potts. The film is based on the award-winning play by August Wilson (Fences) and centers on Ma Rainey, the “Queen of the Blues,” as she makes a record in a studio in Chicago, 1927, when tensions boil between her, her white agent and producer, and bandmates. Ruben Santiago-Hudson wrote the screenplay. Denzel Washington is producing the project with Todd Black (The Pursuit of Happyness, The Equalizer) and Dany Wolf (Elephant, The Nanny Diaries). Marsalis who is best known for his work as a saxophonist and has performed on such scores as Sneakers (James Horner), The Russia House (Jerry Goldsmith) and Malcolm X (Terence Blanchard) has previously collaborated with Wolfe on the HBO movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. His other previous scoring credits include 3 A.M., Laurence Fishburne’s Once in the Life and Mr. and Mrs. Loving. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom will start shooting next month in Pittsburgh and is expected to premiere next year on Netflix.