The Blues Through the Eyes of Morrison and Baldwin
The Blues Through the Eyes of Morrison and Baldwin
“Thus, you begin to see; so, you begin to sing and dance; for those responsible for your captivity require of you a song.”
- James Baldwin
A background on Jazz:
Both Toni Morrison and James Baldwin's novels center around Jazz, a form of resistance, born in the late 1800s, on the brink of the early 1900s. Despite the abolition of slavery in 1865, racism and discrimination continued to pervade America. The early 1900s were marked by Jim Crow laws, which enforced the 'Separate but Equal' doctrine, leading to the segregation of schools, theaters, restaurants, and other public spaces. In this context, jazz emerged as a powerful counter-narrative to the euro-centric worldview, a space to express the full range of human emotions among those who shared this unique experience.
Harlem: More Than Just a Place
Another important note is about the physical location of the two novels, which both take place in Harlem. In the two novels Harlem isn’t just a physical location—it’s a character in itself. Harlem is a complex space, a neighborhood with its own rhythm, its own heartbeat, and where Black culture has flourished despite the systemic hardships it faces. Whether it’s in the streets or in the characters’ hearts, Harlem is where their stories unfold. It’s the place where the music happens, and where the fight for identity, community, and survival takes on deeper meaning.
In this post I will be referring a lot to the word protest, many times when we envision protest we envision movements like Black Lives Matter or The Women's March while these larger orchestrated events shape our history at times protest can be as small as allowing yourself to feel and getting up in the morning. Protest throughout this blog post simply means to continue fighting for justice however "big" or "small" that may look.
Jazz as Self-Expression
In Toni Morrisons novel, she combines the energy of Harlem and Jazz to allow the reader to understand the atmosphere of the late 1910s to early 1920s. Both the City and Jazz become a tool for storytelling and self-expression, offering a space where both the collective experience of Black Americans and the personal struggles of individual characters can be explored. For instance, Morrison uses the backdrop of jazz to explore the culture of African Americans and also how historical events—such as the East St. Louis Massacre of 1917 brutally devastated a community. In the wake of this tragic event, where over two hundred Black people lost their lives in brutal race riots, jazz serves as a form of protest, a collective pain, and eventually the process of healing from this trauma.
In Jazz, Morrison ties the music to this shared experience of loss, using it to express both the anger and the resilience of Black Americans in the face of systemic violence.
In one scene, Alice, Dorcas’s aunt, reflects on how the music served as a precursor to the protests:
"Alice thought the lowdown music (and in Illinois it was worse than here) had something to do with the silent Black women and men marching down Fifth Avenue to advertise their anger over two hundred dead in East St. Louis, two of whom were her sister and brother-in-law, killed in the riots."Alice is suggesting that the Jazz music and atmosphere inspired individuals to march, she also angrily blames it for the passing of her relatives. Alice sees jazz not just as a form of music, but as a kind of protest. The music, in this sense, becomes a communal space where the collective trauma of the Black community is voiced, allowing the pain to be acknowledged in a world that often ignores it. Alice grapples with the aftermath of the East Street Massacre, striving to cling to respectability while mourning her family. She fears and blames the jazz, when in reality, perhaps to blame those who uphold larger systems of violence would be directed at the root cause.
Similarly, Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk uses music to highlight both the individual and collective struggles of his characters, particularly in relation to the systemic injustices faced by Black Americans. In one of the most powerful moments of the novel, Fonny’s friend Daniel, who has just been released from prison after serving time for a crime he didn’t commit, breaks down in tears. Tish and Fonny comfort him, and in this intimate moment of solidarity, the three of them begin to sing “My Man” by Billie Holiday. Daniel, reflecting on the shared trauma of being wronged by the system, says:
"Poor Billie," he says, "they beat the living crap out of her, too."
This moment, while about the music, is also about much more—it’s about the connection that music provides, the way it allows Daniel to express his pain and feel a sense of solidarity. Just as Billie Holiday’s voice carries the weight of her struggles as a Black woman in a racially unjust world, so too does Daniel’s suffering resonate with the music, which becomes a bridge between his personal trauma and the collective history of pain within the black community. This is specifically related to the over-incarceration of black men expressed below in this video.
Like a revolving door, as Daniel returns from jail, Fonny goes to jail for a crime he did not commit. In this scene, Tish (his wife) reflects on her families support in her struggle.
"I listened to the music and the sounds from the streets and Daddy's hand rested lightly on my hair. And everything seemed connected—the street sounds, and Ray's voice and his piano and my Daddy's hand and my sister's silhouette and the sounds and the lights coming from the kitchen. It was as though we were a picture, trapped in time: this had been happening for hundreds of years, people sitting in a room, waiting for dinner, and listening to the blues." (41)
This quote shares the time when Tish finds out she's pregnant with Font's child; she is scared because he is in jail. Of course, the family struggled immensely with Font's false imprisonment, and yet they still were able to find peace within each other. This collective trauma and bittersweet moment is similar to Daniel's commentary on Billie Holiday, rooted in a collective that jazz music signifies throughout these novels. This passage also comments on those who have lived through this before her, "this had been happening for a hundred years" (41). Here, there is an intergenerational thread to follow: both a beautiful story of family and a gut-wrenching tale of history repeating itself.
While both novels use jazz similarly, as protest, their characters reflect on this music quite differently. Music plays a crucial role in their stories, for Tish, the music allows her to truly express herself and feel held. A form of protest along with the lengthy battle with the unjust legal system in the United States. For Alice, the music serves as a prominent reminder of the dangers of protest, love, and desire. For Daniel and Fonny, a place to feel understood by those like them who have been unjustly persecuted. In whichever case, the music transcends melody and becomes a powerful connection between individuals transforming into a collective narrative of the systemic injustices of the early 1900s.
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