A Jazzman's Blues

A film set in the American south in the 1940s. There is a young man named Bayou. He is timid, barely literate and belittled in his family; his brother and father mock him. His mother is a good musician. He meets Leanne, who has moved in nearby. A relationship begins and they write to each other. Leanne's family moves away. She goes to another state, and when she comes back years later her situation has changed: light-skinned, she is living as white and has married into a leading family in the town. Bayou has started singing and becomes known quickly; he goes to Chicago and builds a career there. Where the film goes is their meeting. Bayou returns, and that return is extremely dangerous in the south of that period. The narrative is built around an envelope. The film opens in 1987 with a woman bringing letters to a candidate for governor, and turns back. Music is at the centre: the jazz and blues sequences are held long and the songs are sung inside the film. Joshua Boone plays Bayou, Solea Pfeiffer plays Leanne and Amirah Vann the mother. Tyler Perry directed and wrote it; he has said he wrote the screenplay years earlier and could not get it made for a long time. It was released on a streaming service. A suitable choice for anyone who likes period melodrama and jazz. For a viewer expecting a measured narrative, the film keeps the emotional dose high and its ending is harsh.