The Jazz Repertory Company’s next production is 100 Years of Big Band Jazz. Big band jazz 100 years ago? Well, we start with a piece called “That Moanin’ Trombone” originally performed by the band of James Reese Europe. Europe was a big star 100 years ago and almost totally forgotten today.
Here are six fascinating facts about him:
1 . He was the leading figure on the African-American music scene of New York City in the 1910s. Eubie Blake called him the "Martin Luther King of music."
2 In 1912, Europe made history when he played a concert at Carnegie Hall for the benefit of the Colored Music Settlement School. His Clef Club Orchestra was the first band to play proto-jazz at Carnegie Hall. It is difficult to overstate the importance of that event in the history of jazz in the United States — it was 12 years before the Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin concert at Aeolian Hall, and 26 years before Benny Goodman's famed concert at Carnegie Hall.
3 His "Society Orchestra" became nationally famous in 1912, accompanying theatre headliner dancers Vernon and Irene Castle. The Castles introduced and popularized the foxtrot — "America learned to dance from the waist down."
4 In 1918 he led the official band of the African-American Hellfighters regiment. The French loved the band and it was the start of the long affection the French hold for African American music.
5 James Rees Europe was the first black American soldier in WW1to face the enemy in combat when he joined a French unit on a night patrol. This is in stark contrast to the jazz bandleaders of WW2 who were all kept well away from the frontline.
6 He was murdered by one of his drummers in 1919.
No comments:
Post a Comment