Among the many emotional scenes in the music-world drama “Side Man,” presented through Oct. 27 by the Belfast Maskers, is of three musicians hovering around a cassette player listening to a killer trumpet solo. Their eyes squint, their heads nod, they soulfully snap their fingers.

In that blissful moment, the essence of Warren Leight’s Tony Award-winning memory play about jazz culture in the 1950s coalesces into a sad, sacred and insightful statement about the difficulty of being an artist. In the case of Gene Glimmer, a trumpet player, music is life. And the fact that he has to make money to support his boozing wife Terry and their son Clifford escapes him most of the time.

The show, performed emotionally by the Maskers, combines the desperation of “Death of a Salesman” and the escapism of “The Glass Menagerie,” and adds a smattering of wry humor to create a drama that reads like an eloquent case study from a social-work textbook. On the surface, this looks like a smoky play about jazz and the cats who moved around in the Manhattan night life. By the end, it pierces into territory that is much more personal and universal, a place beyond riffs and deep into the lives of people desperate for happiness and fulfillment.

A grown Clifford, depicted with sensitivity by Justin Howard, is the narrator, but his parents are the most poignant characters. Timing and style are clearly the qualities that are at the center of this play, just as they are at the heart of jazz music. And Greg Marsanskis’ portrayal of Gene is of a man whose clocks ticks to be-bop rather than to real time. He’s ethereal and well-meaning, but all he can really do – and all he wants to do – is play the horn.

As much as we come to sympathize with Gene, it is Terry whose story becomes most desperate. The play doesn’t set out to be about Terry, but Deborah Derecktor is so completely in the role that she commands the stage. She is sharp and funny and powerfully disturbing. In a story where Terry is meant to be a “side man” in a marriage, she ends up being the star.

The supporting neighborhood to this dysfunctional family is played enthusiastically by Jessica Moore, David Woodbury, John Gelsinger and Philip McKay. They wear horrific wigs and speak in disastrous accents, all of which is distracting and maddening. But, more importantly, these community actors tenderly catch the spirit of Leight’s play and there’s no way to leave the theater without being affected by the raw revelations in this production.

Director Tobin Malone has smartly adapted this big piece for a small space, and in doing so has given it an in-your-face intimacy and immediacy. It may be too gritty and too much of a downer for some theatergoers – and particularly for small children. But the show is a courageous look at how unbeautiful life can be even when it’s surrounded by beautiful sounds.

The Belfast Maskers will present “Side Man” 7 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the waterfront theater at 43 Front St. in Belfast. For information, call 338-9668.