Pop funk just got a jazzy update courtesy of Spencer Ludwig, the very original 26-year-old trumpeter and singer chosen to provide the soundtrack for “NFL Honors,”a TV special airing Saturday, February 4, the night before Super Bowl 51.

Ludwig was signed by Warner Bros. Records in 2015, and had been releasing a steady stream of singles, preparatory to his debut album, which is scheduled for a fall release. He’s had a breakout year that included Target’s use of his song “Diggy” in its TargetStyle fall campaign.

Ludwig was brought to the attention of the music industry by Hollywood’s legendary Robert Kraft, a composer who spent 18 years as  President and CEO of Fox Music, responsible for movie music ranging from Titanic to Avatar, Moulin Rogue and Juno, and , and supervising the tunes in TV shows that included The Simpsons, Ally McBeal, 24 and X-Files.

A Harvard-educated composer, Kraft  has earned Academy Award, Grammy and Golden Globe nominations for his role writing the songs “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” (from 1992’s The Mambo Kings) and “How Can I Not Love You” (from 1999’s Anna and the King).  He also produced “Under The Sea,” which won the Best Song Oscar from the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid. 

And that is really just scratching the surface of all Kraft has accomplished. In 2013, when he left Fox, he launched Kraftbox. Fortuitously, he knew Ludwig since he was five years old and in kindergarten with the youngest of Kraft’s two sons.

“He had been touring around with a band called Capital Cities, and during a break he came over to visit, and asked if I would listen to two of his demo songs,” Kraft recalls. “I wasn’t even aware that he had been writing and performing his own material. When I heard it, I was amazed at how they both sounded like hits.”

Kraft, who had been consulting at Warner Bros., suggested taking Ludwig over for a meeting with Dan McCarroll, president of Warner Bros. Records. When the label signed him, Ludwig asked Kraft to be his manager. From there, things started falling into place.

Spencer Ludwig was inspired to learn to play the trumpet after hearing the music of Miles Davis.

As the sole artist backing the “NFL Honors” special, Ludwig has an enviable commercial platform for his work. Also in February, he’s the featured artist on Delta Airlines.

Meanwhile, Kraftbox is percolating several other projects. Kraft is a producer on Score: A Film Music Documentary, a May 29 theatrical release from indie distributor Gravitas Ventures, and he also produced the Off-Broadway play The Lion, a “downtown musical experience” in which songwriter Benjamin Scheuer shares his memoir via rock’n’roll.

With producing partners Paula Wagner and Stephanie Allain, he’s bringing the life of the mother of hip hop Sylvia Robinson, to the bigscreen with The Sugar Hill Story, for Warner Bros. Pictures.