"Bound to The Track"

Toni Morrison wrote a novel with a one-word title: “Jazz.”

Focusing on a love triangle set in 1926 in New York City, the novel takes us on a journey through time and space as we are asked to consider the rural origins of the characters. This is fictional study of the Northern Migration. 

While music has a strong presence in the book, the references tend to be generic rather than specific. The text mentions record labels such as Bluebird (p. 120) and Okeh (p. 6, 197). Very few names appear in the text. The gospel choir “Wings Over Jordan” (p. 94) and Dorcas’ favorite band “Slim Bates and His Ebony Keys” (p.5) pop up in Violet’s trail of thoughts. 

The music is generally there as a key to understanding the characters. 

There is, for instance, a paradox at the heart of Alice’s behavior. A religious woman, she condemns the looseness with which the women conduct themselves in the city, while, at the same time, cultivates feelings of admiration and envy towards them (p. 55). The music is a cultural reflection of that tension: while the drums played during the parade create a feeling of security, they are also the foundation for the lowdown music Alice assimilates to temptation (pp 59-58).

But the greatest paradox is a textual one: Alice, the character who vehemently opposes the cultural force of blues, is the one responsible for bringing examples of such lyrics onto the page. For readers, she has become a vehicle for the following titles and lyrics: “Hit Me But Don’t Quit Me” (p. 59), “How Long” (p. 58), “Nobody does me like you do me” (p.68). Her condemnation of the music has increased her awareness of the music, allowing it to leave its mark on her mind as it does on the page. 

Blues guitarists are associated with a form of handicap but also the strategy blues players develop around it: one blues player props his peg leg a certain way; only one of the blind twins, who aren’t twins, is really blind. More importantly, they allow readers to peer into the fabric of Joe, exposing his faults: vanity and jealousy. In the first scene, at page 119, the narrator tells readers that Joe is so self-centered, there is no distance between himself and the song. In the second scene, at page 131, we see a jealous man losing his battle against his own fear.

How does the music reflect the tension between urban and rural life?

The first element to be noted is that music is largely absent from the episodes that take place in the countryside. There is an exception: Wild’s song. In a heartbreaking passage, Joe hears Wild’s song without recognizing it. At first, the sounds are impossible to tell apart from the sounds of nature. When he finally identifies it as human and tries to exchange with the invisible singer, she becomes silent (pp. 176-177).  

So, most of the music is heard in the city. Music can nonetheless take us back to rurality. But musicians can call upon an experience of nature which they don’t possess, such is the potential of the music. In the “sweetheart” weather, the rooftop horns dream up a girl cooling her ankles in a stream (p. 196). The tension between city and country seems to come to a temporary resolution.  

Overall, record players seem to preside over the lives of the protagonists. Had it not been for a little girl distracted by “The Trombone Blues”, Violet never would have been tempted to walk away with a baby that wasn’t hers (pp. 19-21). The connection between record players and fate is made even clearer when the narrator compares the city to a record player. The city “spins” its inhabitants like records (p. 121). The grooves of the records are the inescapable paths the city lays down for each individual. 

House parties prove to be deadly for Dorcas. She experiences her first form of death when she is silently rejected as a dance partner. The author has us focus on the needle of the record player, as it finds the new track. It is during that interval that the judgment is passed (p. 64-68). Would Dorcas have been interested in Joe had she not been rejected by the brothers? A more serious drama plays out at a second house party when Dorcas is fatally shot by Joe. As she is dying, the young woman notices that the revelers have stopped playing records: a pianist and a singer are about to perform (p. 193). 

Click here for a medley of "Hit Me But Don't Quit Me" and "How Long" with an introduction borrowed from "The Trombone Blues". Listen out for the Spiritual quote.

Morrison, Toni. Jazz, Vintage Books, 2016