Tyler Perry’s directorial feature A Jazzman’s Blues is successful in establishing a strong emotional connection. The film excels in all departments and paints a heartbreaking picture of love and separation. There are several defining moments in the flick, that lead us to the ultimate end.
The leading pair of Bayou and Leanne, portrayed by Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer respectively, forms the bulk of the film. With integral supporting roles from Amirah Vann, Austin Scott, and Ryan Eggold.
A Jazzman’s Blues Ending Explained
We know that the story of Bayou and Leanne goes through much difficulty and hardships. First, they are separated by families, and later through race. Ultimately, when Bayou becomes a famous Jazz singer in Chicago, he fulfils his promise to Leanne and returns to Georgia.
Though the purpose of his visit is to establish his mama’s juke bar, Bayou takes the help of Citsy to inform Leanne about their eloping plan. When he finally arrives, he reveals the meeting location, which Citsy conveys to her love interest.
Also Read: A Jazzman’s Blues Review: A Melodramatic Tale With a Heart of Gold
Throughout A Jazzman’s Blues, Willie Earl’s arch travels from an overconfident achiever to a drug addict envious man. The elder brother can’t stand his fall to the bottom and seeks his revenge from Bayou. It is no one else but Willie Earl, who informs Sheriff Jackson about his brother.
Everyone prepares for the celebration of the night and assumes that the Southern gentlemen have better things to do. After performing his Chicago hit, Bayou sneaks out to meet Leanne inside the parked bus. That is when he gets the first glimpse of his child, and reunites with his long-lost teenage love.
The pair share their moment of affection but not for long. Sheriff Jackson returns with a violent mob and disrupts the peace. Even though Leanne warns him of the consequences, Bayou makes the decision of facing the mob, instead of running again. However, this time it proves fatal to him and his love story.
The mob kills Bayou’s body men and takes him to the field. The news breakouts inside the Juke bar, and everyone attempts the rescue. In the end, Sheriff Jackson and the crowd hang Bayou to the tree, and all hope is lost. The scene shifts back to the present where Bayou’s child can be seen reading the letters. It comes as his moment of realization, that his entire identity was based on a lie. Eventually, he puts all the letters on the lap of his old mother, Leanne.
Leanne reminisces her last living memories of Bayou, as his son contemplates the entire events on the porch. At last, we can see the wide shot of the same tree where Bayou was hanged, and where the love story was concluded.
You can watch A Jazzman’s Blues streaming on Netflix. Tell us your thoughts about the ending in the comment section below.
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There was no scene where it showed Bayou’s son reading the letters so when he put them in her lap it was a bit confusing. I also didn’t realize that was the tree where he’d been hung! But definitely understood that the son sat down to contemplate that his life was based on a lie. The confederate flag hanging from his porch was also very meaningful!!
The ending was confusing. I enjoyed the movie but that ending needs reworked.
The movie really touched my heart. The older lady that walked in the office in the beginning of the movie was bayou Mother. She handed the letter to his bayou son and said I need you to investigate a murder that happened 47 years ago. He started to read the letters and that’s how the story began to tell itself.
The movie was riveting, but I didn’t like the ending at all. I felt that Leanne with all the love she had for Bayou never put herself on the line to help him even at the end. She remained passing for white and when she could have saved Bayou by coming out of the bus she just looked on in horror.
How could she save him ? She’s a woman ? They would have killed her and the baby
It wasn’t the mother because she would have died because she was way older than Leanne.
I think the older lady was Citsy.
It was the mother. She said her name when she dropped the letters on the desk of her grandson in the beginning of the movie. Back then they had children at a young age so it’s possible Hattie May may have been only 13 -15 or more years older than her son bayou and his lover Leanne.
He was reading the letter throughout the whole movie or did you miss that part in the beginning.
The ending was so sad. Leanne never truly loved Bayou, she never made a sacrifice. He kept trying to win her over, she was just plain evil in my opinion.
Leanne was afraid. She loved him but her fear left her mute. I know that fear. She had been ruled over until she felt like she had no rights to her own mind. I know that fear.
Y’all must have missed the beginning when Mama dropped the letters off to Bayou’s son at his office and he started reading them
The older, black lady in the beginning was Bayou’s mother. She identified herself as Hattie Mae. She handed the letters to her grandson, who began reading the letters. The narration of the letters was the beginning of the story line.
The part where he got hanged was sad
I agree, her character (Leanne) just appeared selfish, went along with whatever benefitted her. I think it would have been more impactful of an ending to have them meet their demise together (there was just no way Leanne and Byou were getting out of that mob-situation).
Leanne’s mother was a horrible person. She abounded her daughter, and her grandfather was horrible to her. I felt like Bayou never stood a chance. His father hated him, or maybe that was his stepfather, his brother hated him, and Leanne never stood up to defend even at the last moment. The final scene shows me that so many are passing as white, but many are just passing, since they don’t know their true identities. Yet, they carry a lot of hate in their hearts.
Leanne was afraid. She loved him but her fear left her mute. I know that fear. She had been ruled over until she felt like she had no rights to her own mind.
the ending sucked. as someone who lost her one true love to murder at a very young age, i was hoping, i guess i was hoping for once fate would be on our side. i’m not talking as a black person, i’m speaking as a southern woman. We have all been controlled by others that had no right to rule over us. Making decisions over us that broke our hearts, that they had no right to make.
I agree Leanne could have put herself on the line for her true love, but to be honest she had to think of their son what would have happened to their child if she would have tried to stop it. Plus i think bayou would have made her promise not to intervene I think bayou should have took the bus and started mowing them down but all together this movie sends a beautiful yet horrific truth in our history. Thumbs up to Tyler Perry
I agree! I was just thinking the same!
That it wasn’t Hattie, but Citsie.
Question: how did Hattie Mae [ old lady/ Bayou’s elderly mom] get the letters that were addressed to Leigh Anne in order to give to Jonathan at the beginningof the film? ?
The older lady was Leanne…too light to be Citsy.
The letters were in his mama’s house because they were returned to sender (Bayou). In One scene his brother grabbed some of the letters from the box on the bureau and started reading it Before Bayou grabbed them out of his hand
Leanne’s mom
Had all of the letters sent back to sender. Since Bayou was in the army I assume he used his home address as as the sender address.
I had to stop the film and look up
The ending once Bayou and Leanne met in the bus. It was so clearly a horrible turn for the worst and I had to know what was going to happen before I watched the rest. Leanne did seem selfish to me. Bayou’s mother was right. If Leanne truly loved him she would have given him up and found some other way of getting out of her marriage . And Bayou seemed suddenly naive thinking he coujd take that crowd on his own. Plus just half brother looked up at his hung brother and really didn’t seem remorseful about it. Just nothing from him. Nothing redeeming about him. If only Bayou would have left him to
Die shooting yo in his hotel room!
Remember when his brother came home the box was sitting on the side table and Bayou got mad and snatched one of the letters from his brother when he was reading it.
The ending had me bawling, sad, and angry. I was rooting for a victory for Bayou and Leanne yet the horrors of the Jim Crow era reached out of the screen and stirred up a lot of emotion. As a woman in an interracial marriage and because my mom is Puerto Rican and my dad is black, so many chords struck. To think that my very existence and/or love interest just some decades ago was forbidden, a crime, and life threatening is chilling. Also, the rampant colorism was front and center. Bayou’s brother, a black guy himself was racist towards his own brother. Leanne being able to pass as white and mistreat Citsy in that one scene. Overall, powerful stories of envy, racism, colorism, sexism which unfortunately, all won in the end. Made me think hard about the people who fought for civil rights to end Jim Crow yet residual effects are still present today. Look no further than 2020’s events. In between, some beautiful music and a few moments of black joy. Also, I appreciate the German Jew’s story… also heart breaking and made the tears come. And did they really have to show the confederate flag in the end? Wow. This movie and it’s impact on my emotions will be sitting with me for a minute.
She had them all along. Leanne’s mother was returning them to sender.
Leanne’s mother told the mailman to return all letters to sender if they came from him
In the beginning he was at his desk reading the letters
She said my son .
Because the letters were being returned to sender
Remember Leanne’s mom returned all the letters to sender. She never got them.
Didn’t like the ending was wondering what happen to the evil drug addicted brother
I’m sure he died of an overdose! He already was strung out and I’m sure he heightened his drug use after that. He would never be able to live with that guilt. He already started feeling guilty on stage. Just pure evil.
It was his mother. She said her name was Hattie Mae while in her grandson’s office giving him the letters.
Remember Leanne mom told the mailman any letter that come from him put Return to sender, so basically the letters were returned back home so Bayou’s mom just kept them, remember the one scene the brother Willie earl found the letters and were reading it out loud and bayou got mad
That’s correct
She could not save him then. She could have saved him by loving him from a far or traveling to Chicago ob her own. She had a car.
She wanted to stay alive for her son. She would’ve been killed as well.
All the letters were return to sender because Leannes mom intercepted all of them
I felt the same way.
I felt the same way as Benita*
I also felt that Leanne should have taken off in her car or by bus to meet up with Bayou…She repeatedly jeopardized his safety and it is ironic as she claimed she originally left for his safety (when he wanted her to run away with him).
But…I suppose that had she left and went out to him though (as myself and others said she should have) then the full gut wrenching emotions that we all feel—Tyler Perry’s intentions in making the film—would not have the same effectiveness…Because had Bayou lived and their romance carried on, we wouldn’t all be feeling the same intensity of sadness, anger, etc. Tyler Perry wanted to capture a truth that not only occurred back then but has still carried on—the prejudice that ppl carry on with hypocrisy when most are mixed with multiple races.
I also wondered why Bayou thought he could talk down a group of angry, prejudice, armed men by himself…And it is confusing if the woman who gave the letter’s to Bayou’s son was indeed Bayou’s Mom because Leanne was very much elderly by that point…This part does not make sense to me.
Leann son was the man Hattie Mae Gave the letters to at the beginning of the movie that’s why when he saw the name Leanne he decided to start reading the letters
Expecting a woman to put her life on the line for a man is laughable.
Remember leannes mom used to have them sent back. Return to sender
I don’t understand how leeann looked older than hattie Mae at the end of the movie. that didn’t add up to me
Baby me and my sister said the same thing. She didn’t age well at all. Perhaps she worried herself. His mom did look young throughout the movie but clearly she was older than Leanne.
Best reply I had to watch it again
Actually I had to watch it twice after my daughter made me know that it was the some stuff the beginning of the movie that Hattie gave the letters to. There’s also another part in the middle of the movie where he was reading the letters at the desk. His grandmother was sick of him in the beginning on the television speaking hatred and said “I’m sick of you white man!” That’s when she took the letters to him. I was about confused at first myself.
I don’t know why my response was like this. I meant to say son at the beginning of the movie.
I didn’t like how the movie was blow after blow after blow. He was never happy neither was she. It was so sad and no one that did anything evil got punished. The grandpa, the mother, the brother. That’s what I didn’t like. The ending just made me upset!! I will probably not watch it again but it was a good movie just too damn sad to watch twice…..
The parts that threw me off by the ending were: 1. The baby was too light for a mixed baby and it had red hair! 2. the guy (supposedly Bayou’s adult son) needed to at least have red hair in order to make it make sense. Why did they use a redheaded baby???? I 3. there is no way Leeann should look older than Hattie Mae! That’s just foolishness…
The ending was rushed..
He read the letters at the beginning of the movie when he realized his mother’s name.
This is a setting from the 1930s. That’s just the way it was down south
Leanne was very fair skinned, so she is going to look much older than a Black woman. My aunt was 96 when she died and looked much younger than most White women in their 60’s.
He started reading the letters when Bayou’s mother brought them to him.
This movie aroused so many emotions. They all paid a high price for love. First Bayou, loving Leanne whose love is questionable. She was somewhat of a sale-out. Leanne, giving up her true love to avoid the struggles of living life as a black woman. I think in the end she got what she deserved. A loveless marriage living only on memories of the past. The racism that Tyler Perry touched on was powerful too. Not only did Bayou have to deal with racism from whites, he had to endure racism from his father, brother, and maybe even Leanne. It was a powerful moment when Jonathan sat in the chair looking at the confederate flag. Now he had to question everything he’d been brought up to believe. Powerful, powerful.
I agree. And she was selfish
I think the black lady who brought the lawyer ( bayou’s son) was the maid as bayous mother would have been really really old.
As for the ending. Obviously the son lawyer wasn’t happy with reading the truth and threw the letters back to his mother. The porch scene said to me that bayou’s son had been brought up “redneck”!!
Was leanne Biracial? Was her grandfather white or black. Confusing to me. Movie was a powerful reminder of how hate destroys so many lives even the living…. Even now!
That was literally the very first opening scene. The guy sitting at the desk at the beginning of the movie was Bayous son. Then it shows him at the end, putting them in her lap.
He reads them at the beginning when bayous mom drops them on his desk
Or maybe she was lost, weak and broken. I agree that she didn’t make any sacrifices for bayou
Comprehension is key. Some of these comments show a lack of simple comprehension.
I am so angry that white people can’t walk in someone else’s shoes. I’ll never forgot when I was 5 years old (I’m 72 now) I saw a sign over two water fountains one said whites only and the other sign said for colors only. I thought how stupid and wrong that was! And still to this day racism is still around. WAKE UP WHITE AMERICANS we are NOT that special. GREAT MOVIE
Maria, in the beginning of the movie the letters were dropped off to him by Hattie Mae.
She clearly said she was Hattie Mae. I just think they messed up by having her the same age as Leanne.
So it was Citsie saying she was Hattie Mae? Also, she looked nothing liked Citsie as an old woman. Citsie was brown skinned.
They were returned to sender. Remember Leanne’s mom told the mailman to send them back
I loved the movie the only part that left me baffled was who was bayou real father?
Can’t be Citsy because she was black and the lady who gave the letters was kinda white
I do agree, Hattie was older than Leighann. However Leighann looked twice her age. I would have thought it made more sense for Citsy to be the woman to delv the letters. She cared enough and would have been senior. But her skin color would have been a little darker. Maybe Perry didn’t want to do that but it would have worked and made better sense.
Because the were returned to sender by her mother.
So much agreed!
Bayou’s mother was probably in her 40’s so it’s possible for her to be the one who delivered the letters to the son, remember “black don’t crack”. Why couldn’t they find an older biracial woman to play an older Leanne. She didn’t look like she had a drop of black blood running thru her veins.
What great is that there are no more water fountains that say that. Calm down
Agreed!!! I was expecting for her to spill it all
I think when he was sending the letters, Leanne’s mother kept returning them to the sender. Which is why Leanna said she never received anything from him..
Exactly. She was a girl given away to her PawPaw who clearly was rapping her at night and a mother who decided to care-less. Yes. I believe she loved him as deeply as she could despite of her traumas.
She walked into the office and said her name was Hattie Mae. It was his mother.
Thank you! I didn’t realize that was Bayous son until after I turned the TV off and read your comment! We restarted the movie to see for ourselves! lol THANK YOU!
After he got away the first time she told Citsy that if he had died she would’ve stayed and lived her life in misery because that was what she would have deserved and that was what she did.
I loved the movie. Each person had their role to play. The movie between the two brothers was a scene of Cane and Abel one brother full of love and one full of hate. I tell you what part threw me for a loop is connecting the blood relations between the four (mother, the two son and the father. The father and Willie Earl was not blood related. Hattie Mae had a son (Bayou) before she married Buster. I wish it went further to tell us what became of Willie Earl.
I have a few questions about the movie. 1) Who was Bayou’s biological father? Hattie’s husband alluded to the fact that he wasn’t. 2) What happened to Willie Earl after he snitched? His fate was neither shown nor discussed. 3) Why did Bayou’s brother hate him so much? I did not care for the ending at all. I understand that it was integral to the story, but I was rooting for them up until the very end.
They were at his moms house in the drawer. Remember when Willie Earl grabbed them and the mom told him to put them back. The letters kept getting returned to sender because her mom didn’t want her to read any of them .
It’s the opening act of the movie! In the intro The old lady is that goes to the court house is Haddie Mae she tells the Politican (Johathan) her name. He’s on the TV speaking bigotry when she starts walking across town to his office. She wants him to know his history bc he doesn’t know he’s of black decent. And doesn’t know she’s his grandmother.
The whole movie is him reading the letters/the story. The end of the movie is back to the present day, after head read the letters, headed went home to find his mother listening to Bayou’s music. He hands her the letters, letting her know he knows the truth. The truth could change his whole perception…so he’s sitting there just digesting the truth, he just read.
I think they could have added more of the present day from the beginning of the movie, repeated the beginning or showed him reading the last letter at his office, at the end of the movie to make it more clear.
in one of the scenes when Bayou came from army and the brother visited, he had them in his mamas house on table in a basket . the brother picked them up and started reading them. Im not sure if it was before he ran into Leann at her husbands johns house or afterwards. he was sitting at table and talking to citsy and dropping off laundry .
anyone else get the inkling that maybe the grandfather sexually abused leann’s mom when she was younger too and that the reason for her leaving? if hes sick enough to do it to one he’ll do it it the the other. she was in denial for reasoning for coming to pick her up. and the only reason she came back was being she could marry leann off since she is of age and make a better life for herself. shes a selfish and evil lady.
The screenplay, the cinematography, the actors the thematic conclusion… BRILLIANT, one of the best movies Tyler Perry has written. The movie is captivating but predictable….I so hoped for a better end to the story but it was almost inevitable. The storyline so true to the period, so heartbreakingly true.
Such a great movie loved it. Great job Tyler Perry. But Black people always selling out their greats. They did it to MLK, Malcolm X etc.because of jealousy its in our DNA such a shame. Had he listened to the Jewish guy he would still be alive.
Leann and the baby would have been killed by the mob for revealing she fooled her white husband, by passing for a white woman.