Davenport Blues Essay

Bentonia - a very small town in Mississippi with a population of 500 as of 2000

Blues is one of the most captivating genres of music. The genre was originated in the late 1800’s as a method used by African American slaves to express the circumstances as well as to put emphasis on their feelings and emotions. In order to create these feelings in this music, blues artists incorporate many of the same techniques used to write poetry. One of the most easily identifiable songs in which it is easy to see the relation between poetic elements and blues music is the song “Empty Bed Blues” by Bessie Smith.

In the short story "Sonny's blues," James Baldwin describes the conflict and discomfort that winds in Harlem of the post world war II. Through an in-depth characterization of the narrator, a teacher of algebra, and his brother Sonny, a musician devoted to drugs, the author portrays a Harlem in which beside people struggling to have a decent life there are also those who express anger and pain through jazz and somehow living on the margins of society. The narrator disapproves the life choices of Sonny and does not understand the hardships and the unbearable suffering that brings the younger brother to get lost in drugs in a vain attempt to quell a malaise.

When listening to “The Santé Fe Jazz Combo,” you get a mellow feeling that courses through your body. Their opener “Recorda-Me,” which was my favorite piece, featured solos from Dr. Hamilton on Piano, Spencer Hoefert on Guitar, Ben Salhanick on Bass, Doc B on Alto Sax, Wyatt Thomas on Trombone, and Noah Woolard on Drum Set. The song had a moderate swing tempo that kept your feet tapping up until the solo. First, the brass rang through their part, then the electric instruments. Next came the bass; he was strumming so fast but he was barely audible. The pianist busting through with a tricky piano rift and the drummer finished it off with an intense solo. Every rim-shot sent a jolt into the air like lightning and the buzz rolls sounded like thunder. Noah’s part reminded me why I love playing the drums.

In the story of “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, the narrator, an algebra teacher is devastated when he finds out about his brother going to prison for selling and using drugs. Sonny’s older brother, the narrator, is confused and doesn’t know how to handle the situation because of how shocked he is. He finds out before his algebra class and his students remind him of when Sonny was younger, he realizes his students could someday end up like Sonny because of all the hardships and obstacles to face growing up in Harlem. Giving the conflict of Sonny’s struggle with his heroin addiction and life struggles. James Baldwin uses the narrator as someone unidentified or unknown to convey a personal and closer relationship we have towards Sonny, the protagonist. The author does this so that we don’t focus

The distorted perception of the narrator was unfavorable, moreover acted as a key feature in the pressed relationship between the main characters. James Baldwin’s protagonists in Sonny’s Blues were brothers who battled their excruciating external and internal conflicts. This dueling conflicts motivated Sonny to take control of the essence in his pain and release it through the notes of his music. Playing jazz notes with the instruments of Jazz, which was an outlet for Sonny, moreover the mimicking his personality. Sonny’s characteristics can be embodied by Jazz and/or Blues.

James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is an interesting as well as an enlightening story. Baldwin is successful to describe Sonny’s life struggle through the analysis of Sonny’s relation with the family members in a poor neighborhood of Harlem and his mission of becoming a musician to free himself from the drug addiction. Definitely characterization is the strongest part of the story because Baldwin has effectively presented the main characters; Sonny, his brother and their mother, through in depth psychological analysis, Sonny’s revolutionary actions and the stream of consciousness. Likewise, setting sits as the other important aspect of the story, where Baldwin successfully picks the poor neighborhood of Harlem in the post world war II scenario and links it to the

The main points this source gives you is the background and details of Sonny Blues narrated by his brother. Sonny Blues grow up in Harlem and struggles with family dynamic and drugs while pursuing his dream of becoming a musician, explained in a short story. The topics that we’ll be covering are childhood struggles, addiction and family conflict and the desire to become a musician.

In the short story “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin sets the scene in Harlem, New York of the 1950s. By setting the scene in Harlem, Baldwin is able to create an ambience of struggles, not only from the city itself, but from the characters, as well. Such struggles provides as the foundation for Sonny’s drug abuse and his passion for music, in hopes to capture a moment of relief. Baldwin utilizes Sonny as a prime example of how individuals express their suffering through different approaches. Baldwin uses the setting of Harlem to create a central theme that the means of suffering can be articulated through different acts of pursuits.

Possibly the place with the highest concentration of music history in all of Kansas City. 1823 Highland is a small building where jazz music once lived daily; The Mutual Musicians Foundation, or “The Foundation,” has been a home to everything musical. Created to protect the rights of artists in Kansas City, The Foundation was established in 1917 under the name, “Colored Musicians Union,” operated as a center for social gatherings, a clearing house, as well as a vehicle for grievances against unfair practices by booking agents and band leaders. The Jazz style pioneered and fostered by the members of Local 627 developed along original lines influenced by, yet unique

It is a formless music, but because the performers are quite literally composing in the moment, there were three noticeable sections in the piece. The first part was developing an idea, slowly getting used to each other’s sounds, sometimes gentle and sometime aggressive. Beginning of the improvisation the drumbeat is simple but rather random. There is no set pattern that I could find, but the tom-tom pattern was rather similar so I think that was the main motif. The bass clarinet also started an idea, a 6-note pattern downward without any tonal center. He slowly develops this idea by playing a similar patters, or sequence, to concrete the idea for the audience but slightly mutating the motif little by little each time he plays it. He never plays the same way again. As the bass clarinet gets more active by increasing the amount of notes played and the intensity of the tone, the drum slowly matches the bass clarinet in aggressiveness. The drum plays very sudden loud snare drum occasionally, creating tension in the music with already atonal bass clarinet. Then the drummer starts to put a cymbal and a pad on two different drums to create a very dull thick sound. The bass clarinet and the drum both simultaneously becomes very aggressive, loud, and complex at this point. Bass clarinet sounds very similar to a saxophone at this point. The drummer still

“It’s repulsive to think you have to suffer that much” (Baldwin 132). Many would argue that in life, pain outweighs pleasure. Freud contends that although we are unable to reconcile with the truth because it frightens us, each and every one of us has an unconscious desire to die. Death, according to Freud, is the ultimate escape from the sufferings and hardships which define human life and reality. In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin confronts this dark truth about human nature in his character, Sonny. Sonny’s suffering becomes so unbearable that he refuses to accept it as an inevitable condition of the human experience; he refuses to “take it”: “’But nobody just takes it,’ Sonny cried, ‘That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to’” (Baldwin 133). Rather than directly embrace death, Sonny seeks relief and control in other, alternative forms. At first, Sonny

“Sonny’s Blues” was a compelling story from a nameless brother’s perspective. Sonny was a drug addict who was booked in the beginning of the story. The brother was analyzing how it happened that his brother would be so distant and become addicted to heroin. He would mauled over his past and future. What makes this story even more compelling is how relatable the characters and story are to the Author.

Bessie Smith, also known as the “Empress of the Blues”, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 15, 1894. She has six other siblings, a father who was a Baptist minister and died a little while after Smith was born, and a mother who died alongside two of Smith’s brothers. When Smith’s mother died, it left Smith’s aunt to raise Smith’s remaining brothers and her. Around this time when Smith’s aunt began to raise them as her own, Smith began to go on the streets and perform as a singer. She sang along to one of her brother’s strumming of his guitar. Smith singing on the streets lead her to start dancing in the Moses Strokes Minstrel show and then the Rabbit Foot Minstrels show, where Ma Rainey was a current participant of the show as a blues singer. Rainey soon began to mentor

The second vocal ensemble of the night started out with a song which included a twelve bar blues, called “ I use to know you”. This performance consisted of the most combinations of solos of the night as well as using an improvising style. The entire band started all together which led to a Trumpet solo. Then Jose on the Sax did his solo followed by the pianist comping. Then the choir along with the band joined together to lead to a female solo which was particularly interesting since she was scatting. The second performance of this ensemble was “Spring can really hang you up the most” which consisted of 3/4 time and 4/4 time. This started with a female solo vocalist then a male one. The band as a whole played together and ended with a male solo scatting. The third and shortest performance of the night was a vocal acapella piece, “Love walked in” which was short and sweet. The fourth performance of the night was a Richmond Rogers piece. This had a rhythmic swing/salsa feel from the “Lady is a tramp”. This started with the rhythm section, with the male vocalist and horns. Then the female vocalist from the choir joined and concluded this piece. The fifth performance for the group was a sequel to voice stand an acapella piece by Greg Jaspers. This song started with the choir using their voices as the instruments altogether. The final performance of the night was one of