51 pages • 1 hour read
Jackie KayTrumpet
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Joss Moody/Josephine Moore
While Trumpet begins 10 days after his death, Joss Moody is the main character. The other characters’ actions, thoughts, and dialogue are either about Joss or in reaction to him. He is a Black British jazz trumpeter who attained international prominence before his death at age 70 in the late 1990s. Because he eschewed doctors and hospitals, his death is a shock to friends and fans. This shock explodes when the public learns that Joss was assigned female at birth. He had been born Josephine Moore, child of a white woman in Scotland and her Black husband, an immigrant from the West Indies.
Because Joss is a private person, only his beloved wife, Millie, knows his secret. To protect his privacy, Millie binds Joss’s breasts each morning. Joss presents as a man in clothing and mannerisms—to the point where his bandmates, closest friends, and even his adopted son Colman did not know he was assigned female at birth.
There is universal agreement that Joss is a musical genius. He can take a word or a story and bring either to life with the trumpet. Over his career, Joss recorded 14 highly regarded albums and began a number of bands; he also toured internationally. Jackie Kay uses Joss as a symbol for jazz itself; the name “Joss” is a play on the word “jazz.” The result of Joss embodying jazz is that, like a malleable melody, everyone who remembers him has a slightly different but beautiful take on him.
Millicent “Millie” Moody
Millie is Joss’s wife of more than 40 years, a Scot woman from Glasgow. She meets Joss while donating blood and the two eventually marry. Millie challenges the prejudice of her family and other individuals to protect Joss, protecting his secret until his death.
Millie’s desire for a child leads to the adoption of Colman, a biracial boy. She experiences great challenges with Colman, as he slowly realizes he is different from his peers (i.e., being Black in a primarily white country and the son of a public figure). Joss acts as a mediating force between mother and son when Millie finds herself marveling at her hatred and love for her child. For most of the narrative, she misses Joss and wishes to reconnect with Colman, fearing her son will publish a book about Joss at tabloid reporter Sophie’s goading.
Just as Joss is the embodiment of jazz, Millie is the embodiment of love. Despite her occasional anger at Colman, she is accepting, devoted, and very much a maternal figure. She begins to find solace after Joss’s death largely because she feels his presence is still with her, helping her reunite with an enlightened Colman.
Colman Moody
Colman is the 30-something biracial son of Joss and Millie, adopted as a young boy. The Glasgow adoption agency favored the couple because they were also biracial. Colman grew up adoring his parents, who often brought him on Joss’s band tours and showered him with affection. As he became an adolescent and his cultural awareness developed, he expressed resentment and destructive behavior toward his parents, tormenting his mother and challenging his father. Colman refuses to find a career about which he is passionate, instead taking money from his parents, drinking heavily, and living in a squalid apartment.
The reveal of Joss’s assigned gender leaves Colman feeling betrayed. He hides from his friends in embarrassment and refuses contact with his mother. His estrangement makes him an easy target for tabloid reporter Sophie, who wants to ghostwrite a book in which he describes his upbringing. Colman is both attracted to Sophie and repulsed by her behavior, vacillating between enthusiasm for the book project and the desire to reunite with his mother.
Kay depicts Colman as the embodiment of yearning. As he grows, the relative bliss and contentment of his childhood melt away. He realizes society finds him unacceptable and threatening because he is a large Black man. As an adult, Colman repeatedly expresses longing. He longs for acceptance from friends, strangers, Sophie and other women, and his father. Joss’s final letter relates the story of his own father, an immigrant who also felt unaccepted and yearned to belong; Colman realizes the three generations of Black men felt the same displacement and yearning. Having processed his grief and his father’s letter, Colman ends the novel reuniting with his mother.
Sophie Stones
Sophie Stones is a freelance tabloid reporter who convinces Colman to allow her to investigate Joss’s history, interview some of his acquaintances, and ghostwrite a book under Colman’s name. She is an attractive blonde Londoner. She is manipulative, successfully convincing people that her intentions are harmless or even positive. As an investigator, Sophie is persistent and possesses the ability to discover secrets. Her last name—“Stones”—is a play on slang for male genitalia, implying that she is masculine in her assertiveness.
Sophie’s sister Sarah was the favored child in her family, resulting in her jealousy and tireless efforts to prove herself superior to Sarah. Sophie struggles with depression, but never asks herself if the unpleasant nature of her work is the source of her despair. Rather, whenever she feels depressed, she goes on a shopping spree, purchasing expensive fashions.
For Kay, Sophie is the embodiment of tabloid culture. Though she purchases high-end clothing and accessories, she has little fashion sense and lacks subtlety. Driven by her desire for wealth, she believes only money will make people give her the information she seeks. Sophie also repeatedly misjudges the motivations of others, believing everyone is secretly a “pervert,” even her “perfect” sister.
