The Modality of Toni Morrison’s Jazz

This article examines Morrison’s novel through the tenets of modal jazz and John Coltrane’s 1965 album A Love Supreme. Both Morrison’s novel and the modal form of jazz performed by Coltrane resist the format of the novel/song as a future-oriented teleological entity. Instead Morrison’s novel reflects modal jazz’s focus on the improvisation of the “riff” and a focus on present-tense performance over anticipated resolution. This article investigates the ways in which both works use experimental jazz as a vessel for diverted expectation and new attempts at expression and aesthetic value, and, ultimately, new ways of remembering.