(Sorry for all those abbreviations in the title!!)
Composer and pianist Eubie Bl
ake referred to James Resse Europe as the “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of music”. Mr. Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1881 but was raised in Washington DC where he learned to play violin and piano. He moved to New York City in 1904 and became a professional pianist. While in NYC , he networked with many professionals in the black musical theatre industry. Eventually one of his songs appeared in the 1906 productions of Shoe-Fly Regiment.
Mr. Europe formed the Clef Club in 1910, an organization serving as a union and talent agency for black musicians, and eventually a Harlem concert hall. He served as its president and even formed an orchestra and chorus, which performed “A Concert of Negro Music” at Carnegie Hall in 1912, a performance that had a huge impact on the history of jazz. It is to be noted, however, that the band was not a jazz band, but a symphonic band. “The 125-man orchestra included a large contingent of banjos and mandolins and presented music by exclusively black composers. By this time, Europe believed that although black musicians respected white music of quality, they did not need to play or imitate it. Instead they had their own music to play which people of all races would want to hear.”
After leaving the Clef Club in 1913, Mr. Europe went on to form the Tempo Club, an organization very similar to its predecessor. A year later he worked with dancers Vernon and Irene Castle, inventing dances like the turkey-trot and fox-trot. In 1914 he began recording a unique style of music, unlike the jazz and ragtime that were popular during the era.
Mr. Europe enlisted during World War I where he put together a band of great musicians and they became the 369th Regiment, or the Hell Fighters. The band travelled all over Europe, garnering praise from the many natives. In 1919, the United States welcomed as a hero. He began a tour with the Hell Fighters across the country, starting in New York City. However, before the next show in Boston, Mr. Europe was killed by one of his percussionists after a disagreement. Mr. Europe was known for his booming personality and for being the most popular black bandleader of the early 1900s.
sources: Library of Congress, Oxford African American Studies Center