On Veterans Day, a salute to composer-bandleader James Reese Europe

Veterans Day this year coincides with the 125th anniversary of the death of James Reese Europe, the composer-bandleader who served in World War I with the U.S. Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment (nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters"). Known primarily for his jazz and ragtime compositions, Europe was once dubbed by ragtime great Eubie Blake as “the Martin Luther King Jr. of music.”  

“Before Europe, Negro musicians were just like wandering minstrels,” Blake said. "Play in a saloon and pass the hat and that’s it. Before Jim, they weren’t even supposed to be human beings. Jim Europe changed all that. He made a profession for us out of music. All that we owe to Jim. If only people would realize it.”

Among Europe’s other accomplishments were leading the first-ever concert in 1912 at Carnegie Hall of works composed by Black Americans, being the first Black bandleader to receive a major recording contract (1913) and serving as the first Black American officer to lead men under fire during the World War I (March 1918).

According to the Library of Congress, Europe was known for “the music of his own time, but also the sounds of future generations."

While overseas, Europe (at left) and his band traveled more than 2,000 miles as they introduced Black American music, including jazz, to French and British audiences.

Returning home to the United States as a hero in February 1919, Europe embarked on a national tour but was fatally wounded in a dispute with a band member. Thinking that the injury was superficial, Europe told his band to proceed with that night’s concert. He died, just 38 years old, hours later on May 9.

In an SCP Jazz concert Nov. 22, subtitled James Reese Europe and the Absence of Ruin, pianist-composer Jason Moran will use his distinct interpretational and compositional voice to connect Europe’s signature syncopated sound to the jazz legends who followed and the music of today.

Due to Europe’s early death, his music faded from memory over the decades. In recent years, his legacy has been burnished by contemporary jazz masters like Moran and Chicago-based composer Reginald Robinson. Robinson saluted Reese with the SCP commission “A Tribute to the Great James Reese Europe,” which received its world premiere on Nov. 2, 2018, in an SCP Jazz concert.

“Jim Europe was a crucial figure in the navigation and progression of African-American music,“ Robinson said. ”His talk is as interesting as what he plays,” added Robinson of Europe, who also invented the foxtrot dance style during his years (1912-16) of leading an orchestra for the famous dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle. All of Robinson’s performances make a strong effort to give audiences brief histories of the compositions and the composers behind the works. It’s part of his concern that the music’s history is not properly getting passed down to younger generations.

Twenty years ago, it was harder, trying to explain to people what ragtime was,” Robinson said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 2018. “Now people realize it’s not just music playing to silent movies. It was African-American people creating music that later was going to be called jazz.”