Solo on the Drums by Ann Petry
"Solo on the Drums" by Ann Petry is a poignant exploration of emotion through the lens of jazz music, focusing on the character Kid Jones, a drummer facing personal turmoil. As he approaches the Randlert Theater in New York City, he grapples with the heartbreak of being abandoned by his wife, who has found love with another man. Despite the external triumph of performing in front of a live audience, Jones's internal struggle manifests during his performance as he transitions from reality into a vivid world of memory and anger.
The narrative illustrates how the music becomes a conduit for Jones's pain and fury, revealing his deep-seated feelings of abandonment and betrayal. His powerful drum solo serves as an expression of both his emotional turmoil and a connection to his ancestral heritage, evoking a sense of historical vengeance. Throughout the performance, the juxtaposition of his musical prowess against his psychological distress highlights the complexity of the human experience—where artistic expression can both uplift and unravel the performer. By the end, the applause from the audience feels distant to Jones, as he remains lost in his own world of sorrow and rage, ultimately acknowledging the harsh reality of his situation.
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Solo on the Drums by Ann Petry
First published: 1947
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1940's
Locale: New York City
Principal Character:
Kid Jones , a drummer and orchestra leader
The Story
As Kid Jones approaches the Randlert Theater at the corner of Broadway and Forty-second Street, he pauses for a moment and looks up at the marquee where his name is emblazoned in lights below the name of his orchestra. He feels a sense of pride as people rushing past one another on the crowded New York City street stop, look up for a minute, and smile, recognizing his name. This is what he has always wanted, but his moment of triumph is immediately overshadowed by the memory of something that happened as he was about to leave for work that morning—an occurrence that brought his world crashing down around him. The dissolution of his world was accomplished with two simple words, "I'm leaving," uttered almost casually by the woman he loves as she told him that she has fallen in love with someone else.
When the show is about to start, the house lights go down and the orchestra members take their places on stage. As they begin to play, Kid Jones is intensely aware of his surroundings—the light-flooded stage, the smoothness of the music, the disembodied heads of the audience. As he strikes his drums lightly, the spotlight focuses on the trumpeter, who begins his solo, and Jones observes, with pleasure, how perfectly his drums accompany the trumpet. As the music of the trumpet grows louder, his thoughts begin to drift, and he begins to slip slowly from the world of reality. Finally, he can no longer perceive the music as music; the sound of the trumpet becomes the voice of his wife repeating again and again, "I'm leaving, I'm leaving, the guy who plays the piano. I'm in love with him and I'm leaving now today."
As the trumpet solo ends and the spotlight focuses on Jones, he returns to the present and begins his solo on the drums. As he plays, another spotlight picks up the piano player. At the sight of his rival, the Marquis of Brund, Jones becomes infuriated, and his fury is expressed in a savage attack on the drums. The sound is so intense, so jarring, that it startles the other orchestra members, but Jones takes no notice of the heads that turn in his direction as his drums leap with all the fury in him. In his imagination, he is fighting with the Marquis of Brund. He is choking him, sticking a knife in his ribs, and slitting the throat of the man who has stolen his wife.
Then Jones becomes one with his drums, and the theater again begins to fade. He is transported back into the past, this time into his ancestral past, where the great African chieftains wreaked terrible vengeance on their enemies. Then he moves forward to a more recent past, recalling long-buried incidents of his childhood—a childhood spent with a mother who hated him because he reminded her of his father, a man who seduced and deserted her. He remembers the many women he has used and discarded and, finally, the woman he loves who has discarded him.
So engrossed is Kid Jones in his music and his reveries that he is oblivious to the applause that greets the end of his performance; it is only when another member of the orchestra kicks him on the foot that he returns to the present. He stares for a long moment at the Marquis of Brund; then, slowly and deliberately, he bows, again and again.
Bibliography
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Clark, Keith. "A Distaff Dream Deferred? Ann Petry and the Art of Subversion." African-American Review 26 (Fall, 1992): 495-505.
Ervin, Hazel Arnett, and Hilary Holladay, eds. Ann Petry's Short Fiction: Critical Essays. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004.
Gross, Theodore. "Ann Petry: The Novelist as Social Critic." In Black Fiction: New Studies in the Afro-American Novel Since 1945, edited by A. Robert Lee. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1980.
Hernton, Calvin. "The Significance of Ann Petry." In The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers. New York: Doubleday, 1987.
Holladay, Hilary. Ann Petry. New York: Twayne, 1996.
Petry, Ann. "A MELUS Interview: Ann Petry—The New England Connection." Interview by Mark Wilson. MELUS 15 (Summer, 1988): 71-84.
Washington, Gladys. "A World Made Cunningly: A Closer Look at Ann Petry's Short Fiction." College Language Association Journal 30 (September, 1986): 14-29.