One of those library and book things that keep happening and that no longer surprise me all that much is that there are great books and great authors that zoom on by you sometimes. I heard the early buzz about Washington Black last year and read it relatively soon after it came out, but somehow I had gotten the idea that this was Edugyan's first novel. Turns out it wasn't. Somehow I had missed the Booker award finalist title from 2011 that was the Canadian author's second novel. So, I read this because I was fond of Washington Black, but I have got to say that I enjoyed this book even more. I think, because I hadn't heard of Half-Blood Blues, that I was expecting it to be not-quite-up-to the level of writing that Edugyan had achieved with her most recent book. I was wrong. Edugyan is an excellent writer and a great storyteller.
Half-Blood Blues moves between the early years of World War II and 1992. The Hot-Time Swingers were a jazz band featuring Chip Jones on drums, Sidney Griffiths on bass, Paul Butterstein on piano, Big Fritz on clarinet, the incomparable Hiero (Hieronymous) Falk on trumpet, along with their manager Ernst von Haselberg, filling in sometimes. In 1939, in Berlin, they have fallen on hard times. They are not able to play gigs anymore; Hiero was considered a "mischling," with a German mother and an African father, Paul was Jewish, and Chip and Sid were African-American. And they were playing jazz in Nazi Germany, which wasn't the best career choice. As the threat of war looms and their lives become more precarious a potential lifeline appears. Famed trumpeter and bandleader Louis Armstrong is in Paris. He has heard of them and he is interested in playing with them; he is particularly interested in playing with Hiero, whom he dubs the young Louis. If the Hot-Time Swingers can get papers to leave Germany before the war starts, they might be safe and working again, but complications arise.
The narrative moves back and forth between the war years and 1992 when the first jazz festival devoted to Falk is taking place. Sid, who is telling the story, and Chip offer different answers to the questions about what might have led the Nazis to detain Falk, and what happened to him. They both go on a journey to find some answers.
This is a wonderful story about jazz, the war, memory, old grudges, and jealousy, both professional and personal. Ably narrated by Kyle Riley.
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