Sonny is blue about life and being outcast. In this sense, "blue" means sad, unhappy, despondent. Sonny is also a musician and when he plays, he plays African American invented music, bebop jazz and the blues. In this sense, "blues" refers to a genre of music related to jazz, originating in Southern African American communities, that has a drop in pitch (called a flat or bent tone) on the 3rd, 7th, and sometimes 5th tones of a scale, known as the Blues Scale, which is a diatonic major scale.
Sonny plays the blues to help obviate, or do away with, his profound suffering caused by his position as an outcast. His brother sought to obviate his suffering, caused by belonging to a race that is outcast, by assimilating, while Sonny turned to playing the blues (music) as a record of and an outlet for his blues (feelings). It is up to the reader to decide which approach produces the least suffering.
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