A Jazzman's Blues A Novel

by Perry, Tyler; Brown, Echo

• ISBN13: 9781668008898
• ISBN10: 1668008890
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-08-01
• Publisher: Atria Books

Summary

A moving and unforgettable tale of love and family secrets set in Georgia in the 1940s from visionary Tyler Perry and acclaimed author Echo Brown, based on Perry’s original screenplay and Netflix film of the same name.

1947, Georgia. Bayou, a precocious teen with big dreams of escaping the oppressive South, hopes the music running through his blood can save him from him his daunting circumstances. First, he’ll have to survive the rage of his alcoholic father, Buster, and the searing criticism of his jealous brother, Willie Earl. Despite these challenges, there lurks a golden voice behind Bayou’s bashful demeanor, ready to escape. Leanne, a clever, pretty girl who Bayou grew up with, left last summer a child and returned a woman now desired by every man in town. Troubled by their lives at home, Bayou and Leanne are drawn together, meeting in secret in the sweltering, star-filled Georgia nights. They see something in each other that no one else in their small town can, and they protect each other, until the cruel racism of the South forces Bayou and Leanne to separate and flee the place they call home.

What follows is the extraordinary story of two lovers fated to be together but compelled to take different paths. Bayou journeys to Chicago where he follows his dreams of becoming a musician, his love for Leanne never far from his mind. Leanne is caught between the white and black worlds in Boston and eventually marries a white man and passes as a white woman in order to survive. When Bayou and Leanne return to Georgia and reunite, changed to the core by their experiences, they must decide if they can ever be together again and discover if that’s even possible in a society bent on keeping them apart.

Author Biography

Tyler Perry is an actor, director, screenwriter, producer, playwright, author, and philanthropist. He started his career writing plays, many of which became the inspiration for his films, including the legendary “Madea.” The Madea franchise has grossed over $1 billion at the box office and Tyler’s entertainment enterprise has raked in over $2 billion. Tyler has created seventeen shows, twenty-four feature films, and over 1,600 episodes of television. In 2019, Perry celebrated the historic opening of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 2021 Oscars, and the Governors Award at the 2020 Emmys. In September 2022, Mr. Perry released his twenty-seven-years-in-the-making passion project, A Jazzman’s Blues, with Netflix where the film spent several weeks on the US and global top ten list. His latest collaboration with Netflix, Six Triple Eight, tells the inspiring true story of the only all-Black, all-female battalion during World War II, and features an all-star cast including Oprah Winfrey, Ebony Obsidian, and Kerry Washington who is also an executive producer of the film.

Echo Brown is a storyteller from Cleveland, Ohio, who strives to inspire and provoke. She is a multi-talented artist who has written a celebrated one woman show, speeches for celebrities, and two critically acclaimed novels. Her debut novel, Black Girl Unlimited, and her sophomore novel, The Chosen One, have been covered in The New York Times, NPR, Esquire, and elsewhere. As a novelist, Echo writes mold-breaking, autobiographical young adult fiction that is infused with magical realism. She is currently based in Cleveland, Ohio, after relocating from Paris, France.