James
"Jim" Reese Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama to Henry and Laura
Europe. His family including his older sisters (Minnie and Ida) and older
brother (John) moved to Washington, D.C. when he was 10 years old. He moved to
New York in 1904.
In 1910, Europe
organized the Clef Club, a society for African Americans in the music industry.
In 1912, the club made history when it played a concert at Carnegie Hall for
the benefit of the Colored Music Settlement School. The Clef Club Orchestra,
while not a jazz band, 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. The Clef Club's performances played music written
solely by black composers, including Harry T. Burleigh and Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor. Europe's orchestra
also included Will Marion Cook, who had not been in Carnegie Hall since his own
performance as solo violinist in 1896.
Cook was the first
black composer to launch full musical productions, fully scored with a cast and
story every bit as classical as any Victor Herbert operetta. In the words of
Gunther Schuller, Europe "... had stormed the bastion of the white
establishment and made many members of New York's cultural elite aware of Negro
music for the first time". The New
York Times remarked, "These composers are beginning to form an art of
their own"; yet by their third performance, a review in Musical America
said Europe's Clef Club should "give its attention during the coming year
to a movement or two of a Haydn Symphony".
Europe was known
for his outspoken personality and unwillingness to bend to musical conventions,
particularly in his insistence on playing his own style of music. He responded
to criticism by saying, "We have developed a kind of symphony music that,
no matter what else you think, is different and distinctive, and that lends
itself to the playing of the peculiar compositions of our race ... My success
had come ... from a realization of the advantages of sticking to the music of
my own people." And later, "We colored people have our own music that
is part of us. It's the product of our souls; it's been created by the sufferings
and miseries of our race."
His "Society
Orchestra" became nationally famous in 1912, accompanying theater
headliner dancers Vernon and Irene Castle. The Castles introduced and
popularized the foxtrot—"America learned to dance from the waist
down." In 1913 and 1914 he made a series of phonograph records for the
Victor Talking Machine Company. These recordings are some of the best examples
of the pre-jazz hot ragtime style of the U.S. Northeast of the 1910s. These are
some of the most accepted quotes that are in place to protect the idea that the
Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded the first jass (spelling later changed)
pieces in 1917 for Victor. Unlike Europe's post-War recordings, the Victor
recordings were not called nor marketed as "jazz" at the time, and
were far from the first recordings of ragtime by African-American musicians.
Neither the Clef
Club Orchestra nor the Society Orchestra were small "Dixeland" style
bands. They were large symphonic bands to satisfy the tastes of a public that
was used to performances by the likes of the John Philip Sousa band and similar
organizations very popular at the time. The Clef Orchestra had 125 members and played on various occasions between 1912
and 1915 in Carnegie Hall. It is instructive to read a comment from a music
review in the New York Times from March 12, 1914: "... the programme
consisted largely of plantation melodies and spirituals [arranged such as to
show that] these composers are beginning to develop an art of their own based
on their folk material ..."
During World War I,
Europe obtained a commission in the New York Army National Guard, where he saw
combat as a lieutenant with the 369th Infantry Regiment (the "Harlem
Hellfighters"). He went on to direct the regimental band to great acclaim.
In February and March 1918, James Reese Europe and his military band travelled
over 2,000 miles in France, performing for British, French and American
military audiences as well as French civilians. Europe's
"Hellfighters" also made their first recordings in France for the
Pathé brothers. The first concert
included a French march, and the Stars and Stripes Forever as well as
syncopated numbers such as "The Memphis Blues", which, according to a
later description of the concert by band member Noble Sissle "... started
ragtimitis in France".
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength
d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d4, Knowledge (Battle), Knowledge (Music)
d10, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Shooting
d6
Charisma: 0; Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Sanity:
6; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Heroic, Stubborn
Edges: Command, Common Bond, Elan, Rank (Officer)
Gear: Uniform,
canteen, steel helmet (+1), M1911 Pistol with 21 rounds (Range 12/24/48, Damage
2d6+1), binoculars, map case with maps.
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