Taking on the task of writing the score for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," now streaming on Netflix, was a no-brainer for jazz legend Branford Marsalis.
When director George C. Wolfe called Marsalis about the job, it was an easy "yeah, cool." The two had worked together on the 2017 HBO film "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," based on the acclaimed play by August Wilson, is a fictionalized story based on the real-life "Mother of the Blues" Ma Rainey and an ill-fated recording session in 1927 Chicago.
