41 pages • 1 hour read
Half-Blood Blues
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Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5, Chapter 1 Summary
In 1939 Chip, Sid, and Hiero spend their first night in Paris in the car, then eat breakfast at a café. Using the café telephone, Chip calls the number Delilah gave them while in Berlin, then returns, saying that they are to stay put. As they wander through the city, Delilah suddenly appears, much to the surprise of Sid, who feared she was captured by the Nazis or even dead. She hugs Chip and Hiero but greets Sid shyly.
Delilah leads them to the hotel where Armstrong is staying and tells them that he is ill but wants to see them. She also reveals that France declared war on Germany the day before. Following Delilah’s introductions, a bedridden Armstrong greets the three of them in turn. At Delilah’s bidding, he asks Chip what his middle name is, and Chip reluctantly reveals it to be Chippewah. Armstrong then addresses Hiero with keen interest, with Sid translating Armstrong’s words into German. They plan to play together soon, and Armstrong offers to let Hiero use his old trumpet, since Hiero left his in Berlin.
Sid, Chip, and Hiero move into Delilah’s apartment. Talking to Delilah, Sid learns that she traveled back to Paris through regular means, and that Hiero knew she had return tickets. Upset that Hiero never told him the circumstances of her departure, leaving him to fear for her safety, Sid nurses a grudge against Hiero, whom he refers to as “Little Judas” (242). Delilah comforts Sid with a kiss.
Days pass with little change. The American consul requests that American citizens return to the United States unless they have pressing business; Sid and Chip decide to stay in the hopes of recording with Armstrong. Delilah is often away for days at a time, and when she does appear, she is particularly friendly to Hiero, or so it seems to Sid.
Sid and Delilah dine together one night, and she tells the story of Paul’s arrest in Berlin. She and Paul were walking down the street after retrieving her suitcase and some medicine for Paul when someone recognized Paul as a Jew. Delilah feels responsible for his subsequent capture, but Sid realizes she could not have prevented it. Bill Coleman, a famous American trumpeter, passes by and reveals that he intends to stay in Paris. After he leaves, Sid and Delilah talk about their relationship. Delilah says she did not say goodbye in Berlin because she didn’t want to leave Sid with “shallow words”; she asks him to say that he loves her, but Sid refuses. They sleep together again that night.
Part 5, Chapter 2 Summary
Armstrong finally invites Hiero, Chip, and Sid to play a session with him. As they set up, the others tease Sid about his relationship with Delilah. They begin to play. At first everything goes smoothly, and Sid is impressed by Armstrong’s tone. However, Sid finds his own fingers slipping and fears that he is not measuring up to Armstrong’s standards.
Armstrong asks them about Germany, and they talk about life under the Third Reich. They mention a popular German anthem by a Nazi hero. Chip sings it to demonstrate, and Hiero, then Armstrong, joins in on trumpet; almost against his will, Sid is impressed by the ensuing duet between Hiero and Armstrong. Afterward, Armstrong says he wants to make a recording of the anthem to send a message to the Germans “that only us cats can say” (263). Throughout, Armstrong calls on Sid to translate his words for Hiero. Chip later asks Sid what went wrong with his playing. Embarrassed, Sid goes to see Delilah, who tells him not to worry about it.
Weeks pass with no word from Armstrong. The war progresses, as Russia invades Poland. Finally, Armstrong calls Chip and invites him to talk about the record. Sid tags along, not sure whether Armstrong wants him or not. When he gets there, Armstrong politely informs him that he has another bass player lined up.
He breaks the news to Delilah, who offers her sympathy. Bitter and jealous, Sid accuses her of making overtures to Hiero. She responds that she does try to look after Hiero, whom she sees as a “little brother,” then tells Sid that he has some “very sick ideas” (217) before sending him away.
Sid runs into Hiero at a nearby tobacconist. He calls Hiero a “damn fraud” (274), then tries to take it back. Crushed, Hiero leaves without saying a word.
Winter arrives, and Sid keeps mainly to himself. Out on a walk, he runs into Armstrong, who offers his sympathies for the way Sid’s relationship with Delilah ended. Sid laments his lack of musical talent, and Armstrong tells him his other talents are more important, especially his talent for “making others your kin, your blood” (276). After that, Sid’s anger toward Hiero, Chip, and Delilah begins to fade.
As the war continues, weekly rations take effect.
Part 5, Chapter 3 Summary
In the spring Armstrong goes on tour, leaving the record incomplete. The German army advances westward, with Holland and Belgium falling in quick succession. Parisian officials start to round up German nationals, and Delilah resolves to keep Hiero hidden, saying she knows someone who can provide papers for him to travel to the United States with the rest of them. A few days later Sid accompanies Delilah as she secretly gives an envelope with money and their passports to her contact.
As the days pass, Hiero stops eating and grows thin until finally collapsing one morning. Delilah receives a letter from Armstrong, who is now in the United States. He urges them to leave as soon as possible. Delilah and Sid go to pick up their now-ready visas. After handing over three visas, Delilah’s contact explains that it will take longer to get papers for Hiero, since they have to create an identity for him.
Back at the apartment, Sid learns that their car was stolen. Sid and Chip report the theft, to no avail. Back at the apartment, they find a note from Delilah telling them to meet her and Hiero at a certain train station.
They find the station in chaos, with a large crowd of people desperately trying to board. A man attacks Chip, thinking him to be a Senegalese deserter. Leaving the station, they spot Hiero and Delilah in a park. Hiero’s face is injured; he was also taken for a Senegalese soldier. Defeated, they head back to Delilah’s apartment. Sid, Chip, and Hiero stop for coffee. Hiero suggests that they should still record the Nazi anthem; Chip agrees, and Sid suggests Bill Coleman as second trumpet.
The next night they set out to start recording at a nearby studio, where they meet Coleman. With the power out, they play by candlelight. Sid is stunned to hear a new depth in Hiero’s playing.
The next day Sid, Chip, and Delilah watch German forces parade into Paris. Panicking, Chip suggests they leave, but Delilah insists that they wait for Hiero’s papers. Sid leaves and goes back to the apartment, where he is surprised by knocking at the door. Fearing Nazi soldiers, Sid doesn’t answer, but he opens the door a moment later and sees Hiero’s papers. Realizing that the papers authorize Hiero’s escape to Switzerland instead of the United States, Sid hides the papers, hoping to record one more good take before they part ways.
Delilah returns, asking to see Hiero’s visas; she knows they were delivered, since she ran into the delivery boy outside the apartment. Sid feigns ignorance and comforts Hiero, who is still sick. Delilah storms out.
Part 5 Analysis
Part 5 sees Sid’s animosity toward Hiero peak and then recede; the earlier hypothesis presented by Chip in the documentary—that Sid, mad with jealousy for Delilah, somehow betrayed Hiero, allowing him to be captured by the Nazis—becomes less and less plausible. This agrees with earlier notions of the unknowability of the past, especially when it comes to understanding the private motives of others.
Though these chapters primarily focus on Sid’s personal conflicts, Edugyan continues to touch on the broader political crises that simultaneously rock Paris. The extra ire directed toward Chip and Hiero, who are taken to be Senegalese deserters, reveals prejudice to be present on both sides of the conflict. Hiero is especially vulnerable to exposure and arrest by the Germans as well as the French, though for different reasons. Even Sid, in moments of anger, takes to calling Hiero a “Kraut.”
Still, Sid’s feelings toward Hiero do cool following his conversation with Armstrong, even as his appreciation for Hiero’s musicality grows. As Sid prepares to narrate the crucial moment of decision, when he hides Hiero’s papers, he prepares readers to accept a different motive for his actions than that suggested by Chip: his desire to keep recording with Hiero, as his last chance to produce a great record. Indeed, virtually everything Sid recounts up to that point, from his disappointment at not getting to record with Armstrong to his heartbreak at losing Delilah, serves as prelude to this moment, when he feels that the music is all he has left—and all he could ever want. He does not aim to convince readers that what he did was right but to cultivate an empathetic understanding of why he acted the way he did.
Amid the personal and political crises that mark these chapters, Louis Armstrong becomes a mentor to Sid, Chip, and Hiero. It is Armstrong who sets Hiero down the path of recording “Half-Blood Blues” as a kind of political resistance. It is also Armstrong who chastises Chip for withholding his middle name from his bandmates and finally succeeds in extracting it from him. Finally, it is Armstrong who instructs Sid to cultivate his relationships instead of worrying so much about music. Sid’s great regret is that he didn’t heed Armstrong’s advice at the time, and instead chose to prioritize personal gain over the safety of his friend, Hiero.
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