Coltrane's "Alabama" and Music in "Sonny's Blues"

    In the end of “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator finally watches his brother, Sonny, perform on the piano for a Jazz show. Throughout James Baldwin’s short story, the unnamed narrator never truly understands his brother’s choices in life or his passion for music. However, in this final scene, the narrator realizes “at last, that [sonny] could help us to be free if we would listen [to his music]” as well as the fact that Sonny himself “would never be free until we did” (Baldwin 21). The music Sonny and the rest of the band plays in this scene is beautiful, but also laced with all the pain and suffering the musicians are trying to escape from, or at least cope with. Baldwin deliberately does not name the song the band is playing, so as to emphasize the pure emotions the music elicited from the listener. However, with that being said, several popular jazz songs certainly fit Baldwin’s description at the end of the story. For example, the emotional power of John Coltrane’s song “Alabama” could be substituted as the song Sonny is playing. Both “Alabama” and the unnamed song Sonny plays convey the suffering and pain of both the musicians and the audience that transcends the bounds of mere music and becomes a cathartic experience for anyone willing to truly listen it.

Both songs arise from something painful in the musicians lives. Throughout the story, both the brothers struggle from aspects of their childhoods, growing up in poverty, as well as being black men in America. However, they struggle in different ways. While the narrator ignores his emotions, Sonny requires an outlet for all that pain. While at times in his life he has turned to drugs to ease his suffering, the best way he expresses himself is through his music. In the same way, “Alabama” was a way for Coltrane to express his sorrow and grief for what was going on in the world around him. He wrote the song after the Klu Klux Klan attack on the the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Jazz was often used as a tool for African American people to express the pain they endure every day in the country. The pain is evident in Baldwin’s description of Sonny’s song, as well as in Coltrane’s song. Their pain and suffering is real, but sometimes the only way they can convey it so that everyone can feel it is through music. With jazz, African American people are able to take the suffering they have always felt and make it different and new. When the narrator first listen to Sonny’s music, he realizes that “the tale of how we suffer...is never new, [but] it must always be heard” (20). People will always relate to depictions of suffering, because everyone suffers. However, if it can be expressed in a new light, or a unique way, there is a possibility it may be able to help someone.

While Coltrane’s performance does not utilize all of the same instruments as Sonny’s, the music still interacts in similar ways. When Sonny first starts playing, Baldwin writes about how “the music tightened and deepened” and how “apprehension began to beat the air” (20). A similar feeling is elicited in the beginning of “Alabama”. Coltrane opens it with a slow saxophone intro while the pianist is banging on harsh, deep chords (0:10-1:21). This combination establishes an eerie, dark tone for the song. The introductions in both songs elicit anxiety and discomfort in the listener, which serves to make the listener feel the vulnerability of the musician. It unites the two in a way, and creates a relationship. It also serves to make the rest of the song feel even stronger and more impactful. As Sonny continues the song, Baldwin writes that his “fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others” (21) as well. Jazz musicians were able to transcend their own suffering in order to identify and relate to the suffering of others. This detail is particularly evident in “Alabama”. Everyone who hears Coltrane’s lament for the Alabama bombing will relate to it in different ways, from how the mothers of the victims will hear it to how white bystanders who allow this treatment of African Americans to exist will hear it. The music becomes everyone’s music, not just Coltrane's or Sonny’s. This is particularly evident in the last part of Coltrane’s performance. The music shifts to a slow, solemn tone, where you can tell the musicians are mourning. The saxophone seems to whine desperately, and the piano in the background adds a subtle cacophony of chaos that emphasizes the despair they are feeling (5:14-6:00). It is almost impossible to listen to the harsh but beautiful sounds and not feel something.

                                           

                                                             

                       

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saN1BwlxJxA