James Reese Europe

• Born: February 22, 1881
• Birthplace: Mobile, Alabama
• Died: May 9, 1919
• Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts

Ragtime musician

A bandleader, pianist, and violinist, Europe formed the first African American musical ensemble to record with a major label and collaborated with the celebrated dance team of Irene and Vernon Castle. Along with the Castles, Europe helped introduce a number of popular dances, including the foxtrot.

Areas of achievement: Dance; Music: bandleading; Music: composition; Music: pop

Early Life

Born in Mobile, Alabama, James Reese Europe moved with his family to Washington, D.C., when he was a youth. He was largely self-taught in music. In 1904, he moved to New York, where he began his career playing the piano and composing songs. One of his early songs, “The Gay Luneta,” was accepted for the musical Shoo-Fly Regiment in 1906. Over the next two years, Europe contributed songs to The Black Politician and became music director of The Red Moon. His work on The Red Moon introduced him to cast member Bessie Simms, with whom he began a romantic relationship and later fathered a child, James Reese, Jr. This relationship continued until his death, even though he was married to Willie Angrom Starke.

Life’s Work

In 1910, Europe established one of his most important legacies, the Clef Club. This organization employed its own orchestra and chorus, served as a booking agency for African American musicians in New York, and functioned as a union, ensuring fair working conditions and pay for its members during the early twentieth century. The Clef Club had more than two hundred members and, at its height, booked over $100,000 in concerts annually. On May 2, 1912, the orchestra—with Europe conducting—was asked to perform at Carnegie Hall in a benefit for the new Music School Settlement in Harlem. This highly successful event was the first performance by a black orchestra in Carnegie Hall and before an integrated audience. The performance is considered the most significant achievement of the Clef Club, and led to repeat engagements in 1913 and 1914. In 1913, the Clef Club also made its first recording for Victor Records, becoming the first African American orchestra to make a recording.

In 1913, Europe left the Clef Club to begin a new venture, the Tempo Club. The next year, he formed an alliance with the dance teamVernon andIrene Castle. The Castles and Europe are credited with pioneering a dance craze, the foxtrot, although Europe gave credit to W. C. Handy.

Europe enlisted in the National Guard when America entered World War I. He attended officer training school and became a lieutenant in the Fifteenth Regiment in the U.S. Army. His orders were to create a first-rate band, which he did, calling it the Hell Fighters. After his regiment arrived in France, it was dropped from the American forces integrated into the French army as the 369th Regiment. The Hell Fighters performed to acclaim across France, saw fighting action in the front-line trenches there, and were among the first Allied troops to enter enemy territory after the Armistice in 1918.

Europe returned to America a hero in 1919 and immediately began a nationwide tour with his Hell Fighters. Their first concert in New York created a sensation, with numerous encores. A well-received tour of the Northeast and Midwest followed. The band made four recordings for Pathé Records during this time as well. The tour concluded with repeat performances in Philadelphia and Boston.

On May 8, 1919, during rehearsals before the second show in Boston, Europe was killed by a member of his own band. In a backstage argument about professionalism on stage, drummer Herbert Wright stabbed Europe in the neck with a pen knife. The blade severed Europe’s jugular vein, and he died at the hospital the next day. Europe received the first public funeral for an African American in New York City’s history. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington Cemetery.

Significance

Europe exerted a strong influence over the development of African American music in New York and the stature of its musicians. His Clef Club brought union ideals and consistent work and pay to its African American members. As a bandleader, he was central to the musical and social scene of the early twentieth century, including the development and popularization of dances such as the foxtrot. As a composer, he influenced future legends, such as George Gershwin, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, and Duke Ellington. An activist for the rights of musicians, especially African American musicians, Europe can be considered, as Blake put it, to be “the Martin Luther King of Music.”

Bibliography

Badger, R. Reid. A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. The most complete and authoritative resource on the life of Europe. Includes extensive letter and diary excerpts, discography, and list of original compositions. Photographs of Europe and detailed accounts of his service during World War I are particularly interesting.

Brooks, Tim, and Dick Spottswood. Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. This encyclopedic book of early recordings contains a section on Europe and his bands.

Sandke, Randall. Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet: Race and the Mythology, Politics, and Business of Jazz. Landham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2010. Discusses Europe’s Clef Club and orchestras in the context of the predominantly white entertainment scene of the early twentieth century.