Summary

The narrator accompanies Sonny to a nightclub in the Village. The narrator sees Sonny in a new light, admired, talented, with the royal blood of a true musician. Sonny’s fellow musician, Creole, is more of a father figure to Sonny than the narrator, protecting him and leading him to greatness onstage. Creole plays bass fiddle. Others play horn and drums. Sonny rounds out the quartet, playing piano. Everyone in the nightclub is poised to listen.

The narrator muses, eloquently, that most people don’t really hear music, and if they do, they just hear “personal, private, vanishing evocations” (p. 23). However, the musician hears something else, and his triumph is everyone’s triumph.

Creole, the artist, holds the other musicians back having a musical dialogue with Sonny. He is waiting for Sonny to metaphorically leave the shore and swim to the deep water. Sonny hasn’t...