Aloe Blacc travels through America’s Musical Journey for historical 3-D IMAX film

Singer Aloe Blacc has entered museums across the U.S. with America’s Musical Journey, a new historical 3-D IMAX film.
The fresh 40-minute travel documentary, narrated by Morgan Freeman, features the I Need A Dollar hitmaker travelling across the country to musical epicentres such as New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Nashville, and Miami to discover how each city impacted American music.
Now screening in science centres and museums around the U.S., Aloe is proud to be part of the project, because the film sheds a fresh light on the country’s rich musical history.
“We got a chance to tell the story of the roots of American music by going from New Orleans to talk about jazz, and going to Memphis to talk about the blues and rock ‘n’ roll, and going to Detroit to talk about soul,” he tells Billboard. “This film is for anyone who is interested in music.
“I think if you are a young student and interested in learning more about music, you’ll find out some of the icons that have ushered in genres or been really important in specific genres. You’ll find out about the mixture of culture and the history of how different sounds from West Africa and Europe came together.”
Aloe hopes to inspire young musicians with fresh information about what historical sounds their music may be influenced by through the documentary.
“I wouldn’t say young folks don’t care; I just think you don’t know what you don’t know, and it’s our jobs, my job as a musician, to help pass the baton to younger folks and say ‘This is where we’ve come from, and this is where you can take it to go where the future will lead you.’ A film like this is a nice introduction to that,” he says.
Aloe’s forthcoming album was inspired by his work on America’s Musical Journey, with the star choosing to deviate from the norm for his new tracks My Story and Brooklyn in the Summer.
“The next album, for sure, is going to have nuances that I would say, undoubtedly, have been inspired by travelling on this journey,” he explains. “Probably the key aspect of doing this trip for me was just reminding myself that music isn’t about rules.”