This is the start of Sonny's brother's awareness of his cultural narrative, but it is a slow process that leaves him unable to comprehend Sonny's musical aspirations (699). Even what he thinks of as music doesn't line up with Sonny's more in-tune tastes; Sonny refers to Armstrong -- whom his brother thinks of as representing jazz/blues -- as "that old-time, down-home crap," with certain implications of racial turncoating (699). Eventually, Sonny's brother takes Sonny's victory -- his return to music and his turning away from heroin -- as a triumph for himself and possibly, symbolically, a victory for the blacks of Harlem (701). This triumph is uncertain, however, just as the new musical forms solidifying into bebop and jazz were uncertain (701). The musical choice for Sonny's return to the piano also has implications on this; it is a new form of jazz/blues, sung by an artist similar in stature...

The character of Creole, the famed musician who invites Sonny to play, also coaxes his fellow musicians, including -- and perhaps especially -- Sonny, to explore the history of their music with new forms (703). In this way, the black cultural narrative can be adapted to overcome past circumstances and current limitations, remapping "the network of cultural narratives, of which the revival songs comprise only a small part" (703).
There is an agency in Sonny's music that does not and cannot exist in traditional blues (704). This agency is provided by Sonny's music to himself, his brother, and the community at large (704). Baldwin, in this story, attempts to alter the cultural narrative that creates self-fulfilling beliefs in failure (704).

Works Cited

Sherar, Tracey. "Sonny's…