TYLER PERRY’S A JAZZMAN’S BLUES
When I saw this movie was set to be showing on Netflix, all I knew was that I was gonna watch it as soon as it came out, and I did.
Big fan of Tyler Perry’s works, by the way.
Just like every other tragic love story that ever existed, Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues, is no different. I guess fairytales deceived us, not all love stories have happy endings.
While I was watching the movie, I couldn’t help but notice the use of symbolism, which held a rather significant meaning to the movie itself. I then decided, that I was gonna write a review on the movie from a symbolic standpoint.
Before we journey out on this train express together, Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues, is a movie that tells the tale of the forbidden love of Bayou (as played by Joshua Boone), and Leanne (Solea Pfeiffer), as well as family drama, that unravels forty years of secrets and lies against a soundtrack of juke-joint blues in the Deep South. It came to Netflix on September 23, 2022.
The movie opens up with dialogue between an aged Hattie Mae(played by Amirah Vann), who is seen in an office demanding that a murder be looked into that had occurred in 1947, forty years ago in Hopewell County, Georgia. We get to understand at the end of the movie, why she goes to Mr. Johnathan’s office instead of the Sheriff’s to lay her complaint, as is seen in their dialogue, when Mr. Johnathan asks her if she has spoken to the Sheriff’s office and she replies him saying, “Ain’t for them.”
If you ask me, the death of her son all began with the tossing of a PAPER AIRPLANE. Paper airplanes are common with kids. Just incase you don’t know what I’m referring to, here’s a picture….
The primary work of an airplane is to fly, to transport passengers from one location to another. Now you might be wondering, what embedded meaning could be lying in a lifeless paper airplane? Well, there are indeed several meanings but I’m going to walk in this direction. Bayou and Leanne (or Lil-Ann, as he fondly called her) could only meet at the “yew tree” in hiding. Bayou waits up every night for Leanne to toss the paper airplane through his window, after which, they would both run together to their spot and spend time together till dawn. This is the only time when they could be together.
A paper airplane, though lifeless, but in the hand of kids, is made to come alive. With this, kids are filled with the will power to dream. They don’t care if the paper airplane is gonna drop to the ground the next minute they fly it into the air, they still give it a shot, nonetheless. Bayou’s brother, Willie Earl (Austin Scott) does not believe that Bayou is gonna be able to get the attention of Leanne. He believes she is way out of his league. Both Willie Earl and their father, Buster (E. Roger Mitchell), see Bayou as a weakling. We get to know that the hatred is much more than just them seeing him as a weakling, which he clearly isn’t . Bayou clearly has no plans of backing down. His mind is made up and he plans to get the girl. Also, Leanne’s granddad is not in support of her relationship with Bayou, which makes proper sense after watching the movie because what type of granddad would be this protective of his grandchild to the point of refusing her from seeing any man…..but Leanne does not let this deprive her of a chance at happiness.
The paper airplane is seen as a symbol of desire that exists between Leanne and Bayou. Watching Bayou lying in his bed every night, waiting to get the signal just before he jumps out his window and runs together with Leanne. While, she was allowed to dream and build a life with Bayou, he was also made to feel like a man, whenever they were together at the yew tree all summer.
It also represents a means of communication between the two of them. When Bayou stops receiving the paper airplane at a point, he realizes their communication barrier has been breached. He goes looking for her and just happens to see something he shouldn’t have.
If you ask me, Bayou could have just ignored the first paper airplane that he got from Leanne, and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have had such an end. But who am I, to stand in the face of love.
The LETTERS began with the tossing of the paper airplanes. Messages were written inside of the paper airplane. The first one reads, “Meet me at the yew tree” but at that time, Bayou couldn’t read. Leanne teaches him how to read, which he puts to his advantage in the later part of the movie, when he is seen writing and sending letters to both Leanne and his mama. These letters are seen as holding so much emotions. When Leanne and Bayou becomes somewhat estranged because of everything that transpired between them in Summerville, Georgia, he began writing to her daily. Those letters to him were the only thing that made his once upon a time love to Leanne, real. You could call them remnants of what he had shared with her. These letters are what Hattie Mae gives to Mr. Johnathan telling him, “Everything you need to know. It’s right here”. Mr. Johnathan also gets to read about his father from these letters. These same letters are what Mr. Johnathan gives to his mom, at the concluding part of the movie. Seeing this letter, aged Leanne, who is seen in a nursing home, listening to Bayou’s record, could only cry, after days of refusing to say a word to anyone. To her, those letters, are a reminder of her one true love, Bayou.
These letters also, stood as a link between the past and the present. It was through these letters that the entire mystery that happened forty years back in Hopewell, Georgia, was discovered. The entire movie was built on these letters.
The letters also say more about the period in which the movie was set. Phones and advanced technology were not yet available. The only telephone that is seen in the movie, is the one Ira ( Ryan Eggold), uses to phone his contact in Chicago, which seems to be the only one in town. Letters were the only rampant means of communication at the time.
I might not necessarily have to point this particular one out because it is the most obvious scene in the movie. THE SEATING POSITION IN THE BUS, which shows a clear demarcation between the white and the colored people seating on the bus. I mean, there’s no way you can miss it because it was clearly written COLOREDS. It’s without any doubt that the setting of this movie is one done at a time, when racism was at its peak.
FACT – During that period, believed to have began in the 1890s, the state of Georgia and other states that belonged to the south, passed a wide variation of Jim Crow laws that instructed a clear cut of racial segregation and separation on public facilities and effectively structured the region’s tradition of white supremacy.
Can’t help but wonder the type of fate that would befall a colored person who would cross that boundary on the bus or any other public facility.
The kind of CARS driven by the white people in the movie, also differs from that of the colored folks. A person of color is never to be seen inside the cars reserved for the whites. You get to witness this in the dialogue between Bayou and Leanne, after they meet again in Hopewell County, after being estranged, when she was seen asking Bayou to come into her car for them to have a discussion. He says to her, “Anybody see me in that car, I’m dead”. Colored folks were also refused to sit at the TABLE, “Get up from there. We don’t allow coloreds to sit at the table”. This is seen in the scene when Bayou brings the laundry for Citsy (Milauna Jackson) at Sheriff Jackson’s (Brad Benedict) house. White folks were also not allowed, to be seen fraternizing with the coloreds. Now imagine what would become the fate of a black man, if he is seen looking in the direction of a white woman….Lord knows what the fate of that negro would be. The menial jobs were of course, reserved for the colored folks as well. This is probably the only time you would see a colored and a white man having a conversation. Citsy worked for the Clayton’s, while Hattie Mae was a wash woman.
Now tell me, you ever had those overwhelming days and it feels like you don’t belong in society but you just find comfort in your safe haven, be it a glass of wine, or a book or whatever, well the JUKE-JOINT and JAZZ MUSIC was that safe haven for the colored folks in the movie.
A juke-joint, characterized by dancing, music, drinking, and gambling, is a casual establishment, operated mostly by African-Americans in the Southeastern side of the United States. It can also be called a “barrelhouse”. Also, you ever notice how every movie that has jazz music in it, has a good number of black characters in it as well? Well, jazz music is a way that the African-Americans get to contribute to the American society, to uphold black culture and highlight black history. Although, some African-American musicians beg to differ. They see jazz as a reminder of a society that constantly suppress their artistic visions through racism and oppression. The early period of jazz can be traced back to African slaves and Creole descendants in the history of New Orleans. Tyler Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues, adapts jazz music to celebrate black accomplishments and freedom.
We see a lot of black folks in Hattie Mae’s juke-joint every evening. They enjoy jazz music while drinking and dancing. We see Hattie Mae and her boys, Bayou and Willie Earl giving a performance of a lifetime, for everyone to dance to. It’s the only place in the entire movie where we see black folks get to be who they want. They laugh and make merry. It was the one place where they didn’t have to deal with no white person. Not until Sheriff Jackson, and his brother, John, and a couple of other white men goes down to Hattie Mae’s house looking for Bayou. To the coloreds in the movie, they get to find out that their safe haven have been infiltrated by the whites, the same people they wanted a break from. Due to this altercation, they no longer went down to Hattie Mae’s juke joint and she runs out of business. Way to go, white folks!!!
Remember the seating position in the bus… well, ask yourself this, if Leanne was to find herself boarding a bus, where would she fit? The answer is anywhere. She’s a black woman that can pass off for a white woman. LEANNE’s character is another symbolism that I found in this movie. Now you’re asking me why? Well, you see a fake, and I see the will to survive. Call her whatever names you want to, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Yes, it might not necessarily be the right thing to do because if we’re being honest, if she gets caught, she’s as good as dead. Not only that, she would stir up a lot of problem for other coloreds in the movie. The whites would believe that they have been cheated and fooled by the blacks and you know nothing beats a white man up than being belittled in the face of blacks.
The term “Passing” or “Racial Passing” is when a person belonging to a racial group is accepted (passes), as a member of another. Some African-American saw this as a way to help uplift their fellow blacks and mar the racist system that puts black people at the bottom of the ladder in society. They often leave their black society to get a good education and return to strengthen their community. Although, reasons behind passing varies.
In Leanne’s case, she probably just wanted to survive. Becoming the wife of the next mayor of Hopewell, John Clayton; living in better conditions now and doing well for herself than she was when in Boston. Although she might not have wielded her new found powers to a good cause, but having suffered abuse from her grandad, her survival radar must have risen up. Citsy, who knew Leanne or Bucket, as she was nicknamed back in Summerville was unable to recognize her when she met her in the Clayton’s house. This tells how much she must have changed. It wasn’t just Leanne, her mother was in on it as well. I mean, she orchestrated the entire plan. Unlike Leanne, having gotten a taste of their new identity and all of the privileges it comes with, she wasn’t ready to go back to being nothing. She swears to rather die in the Clayton’s house, than go back to Boston. She did let herself get too carried away with the whole character she had put up, she probably believed that she was more white than the actual white folks. Would you blame her though?
Feel free to argue with me, only after you must have watched the movie yourself.
The movie, having adapted a reverse chronology, is probably the reason why I didn’t enjoy it like I should have. We kinda all knew someone was gonna die, we just didn’t know how. So, I was on edge the entire time, just waiting to see the death scene unfold, instead of actually enjoying the progression of the movie. I think that’s one of the cons to the movie.
We’ve come to the end of this joy ride. If you had fun, then you know you must like and share this post. If you found the ride bumpy and didn’t enjoy it, well, still like it and help share it.
However, if you’ve got more symbols from the movie that you wish to share, please do not hesitate to leave your opinions in the comment section below. I will love to hear your thoughts.
