James Baldwin uses the motif of jazz music to explore themes of identity, community, and the power of artistic expression in “Sonny’s Blues”

3 examples:

1st example: “Well, Sonny,” I said gently, “you know people can’t always do exactly what they want to do-“
“No, I don’t know that,” said Sonny, surprising me. “I think people ought to do what they want
to do, what else are they alive for?”
“You getting to be a big boy,” I said desperately, “it’s time you started thinking about your
future.”
“I’m thinking about my future,” said Sonny, grimly. “I think about it all the time.”

The first example Baldwin addresses the motif of jazz music is through Sonny’s identity, Sonny heavily believes that jazz music is his calling as he goes back and forth with his brother with his purpose of life and explains to him that not everyone follows their purpose, but sonny makes it clear to his brother that this is a process he has been thinking about all the time for the future. The calling for jazz is who Sonny believes he is meant to be, implying that this is his identity.

2nd example: The dry, low, black man said
something awful on the drums, Creole answered, and the drums talked back. Then the horn
insisted, sweet and high, slightly detached perhaps, and Creole listened, commenting now
and then, dry, and driving, beautiful and calm and old. Then they all came together again,
and Sonny was part of the family again. I could tell this from his face. He seemed to have
found, right there beneath his fingers, a damn brand-new piano. It seemed that he couldn’t
get over it.”

The second example Baldwin addresses for the motif of jazz music is through community, it’s clear and apparent that Sonny has been able to reconnect with his family through this new form of community as his brother states, “Then they all came together again, and Sonny was part of the family again.” This context from the reading truly shows how jazz has formed Sonny’s life through the form of repairment (family) and has allowed him to have his own separate community that is like family to him as well.

3rd example: I had
never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his
instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make
it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It’s made out of so much wood and
wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there’s only so much you can do with
it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.
And Sonny hadn’t been near a piano for over a year. And he wasn’t on much better terms
with his life, not the life that stretched before him now.

The final example Baldwin addresses for the motif of jazz music is through the power of artistic expression, I believe this context from the text, “never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own”, is used as a metaphor to represent the form of power through a musician’s instrument (Sonny’s piano), and how a musician allows this power of artistic expression by applying his life to it (Sonny’s passion for jazz.)