Looking out: It diminishes all people
BY BRANDON ASTOR JONES
"True music ... must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time." — George Gershwin, 18981937
The achievements of bandmaster and composer John Philip Sousa (18541932) were introduced to me when I was in fourth grade. I learned that he studied violin and harmony, and that he served as an apprentice to the United States Marine Band, of which his father was a member. The younger Sousa became the leader of that band from 1880 to 1892. He composed more than 100 marches.
The two compositions that he is most remembered for are "Semper fidelis" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever", composed in 1888 and 1897 respectively. Sousa is also well known for having greatly improved the instrumentation of military and civilian big band music of the day.
I thank Mr P.B. Lowry, of Collaroy, New South Wales, who sent me an essay, "James Reese Europe and the Prehistory of Jazz", by R. Reid Badger, from which the following quotes come.
"On May 10, 1919, some seven months before America's Jazz Age was officially ushered in, the front page of the New York World announced that James Reese Europe [18811919], the 'King of Jazz Music', had been tragically killed during a performance of his band at Boston's Mechanics Hall.
"At the time of his death, thirty-eight year old Jim Europe had already achieved a remarkable position in American popular music. A prolific composer of popular songs, dance tunes, marches, and ragtime, Europe was also prominent in the emerging black musical theater in New York, and, in 1912, led the first orchestra of black musicians to appear at Carnegie Hall."
After reading Badger's essay it struck me that as a child I had been provided with an awful lot of information about Sousa, but not even an honourable mention of Europe. Unfortunately, not a lot has changed in the way that the US's history books and elementary schools teach children history.
Europe "was the central figure in the dance craze that swept the country in the years prior to World War I. During the war he led the celebrated 369th Infantry 'Hellfighters' Band of the American Expeditionary Force, which some have claimed first introduced France to American syncopated music, and at the time of his death Europe was the best known black band leader in America.
"In 1919, 'jazz' was a very imprecise term compared to current definitions, or indeed even to the popular understanding that emerged during the 1920s. Nevertheless, between ... 1908 and 1919 certain subtle modifications of popular ragtime-based rhythms and tonality, along with an increasing acceptance of extemporization, gained such widespread recognition that by the latter date it was common in the United States and Europe to speak of a new music; that music was called jazz.
"Jim Europe's career and his music provide important insights into the emergence and diffusion of the new music and suggest the generally unappreciated role that more formally educated black musicians played in that process ...
"By the spring of 1910 [he] had achieved a reputation as one of the major composers and directors in black musical theater ... On April 11, 1910, Europe and several other established black composers and players formed the Clef Club ... a central union, clearing house and booking agency for employment of black musicians anywhere in New York and to oversee their contracts and guarantee their professionalism.
"Jim Europe was elected both president of the organization and conductor of the Clef Club Orchestra which gave its first performance on May 27, 1910, at Harlem's Manhattan Casino."
Europe's music was unique. White Americans had never heard the cultural injections that had been taking shape in his musical soul.
"[Europe's] crowning achievement with the orchestra occurred on May 2, 1912, when he brought them to the stage of Carnegie Hall for a 'symphony' of 'Negro music'. It would be hard to overestimate the significance of the event; twelve years before the Paul WhitemanGeorge Gershwin concert at the Aeolian Hall and twenty-six years before the Benny Goodman concert of 1938 ... so well-received was the concert, that the Clef Club Orchestra returned to Carnegie Hall for performances in 1913 and 1914.
"Europe employed great sections of mandolins, banjos or bandolas, and harp guitars, as well as strings, brass, woodwinds, pianos and percussion ... The sort of material that the public expected [and was played by] John Philip Sousa.
"Europe [later] admitted that he was forced to modify the unusual instrumentation ... As he moved the orchestra toward playing Afro-American music exclusively, he became more convinced of the appropriateness of the sound he had created."
In March 1914, during an interview with a New York Evening Post reporter, Europe said that he wanted to develop "a kind of symphony music that, no matter what else you may think, is different and distinctive, and that lends itself to the playing of the peculiar compositions of our race".
Europe's musicians were among the finest in the world. His orchestra played for a long list of New York's elite. His musicians' interest in their craft was extraordinary.
"According to Eubie Blake, who, along with Noble Sissle, joined [him] in the spring of 1916, 'that Europe gang were absolute reading sharks. They could read a moving snake and if a fly lit on that paper [it] got played'."
It has been said that George Gershwin (18981937), as a youngster, sat upon the curb outside of the Clef Club and absorbed James Reese Europe's music. It is easy to hear Europe in Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" or "Porgy and Bess", composed in 1924 and 1935 respectively.
Also important is that Europe and his fellow soldiers did not run away from the heat of battle, unlike many military band leaders and musicians of the period.
"On March 14, 1918, Europe and his fellow musicians were directed to rejoin their regiment, which had since been renamed the 369th Infantry Regiment and assigned as such to the Sixteenth Division of the French Army at the front near Givry-en-Argonne.
"Jim Europe took great pride in the fact that the men of his band served as not only entertainers but also combat soldiers who fought alongside their comrades in the trenches for nearly four months of the ... War ...
"During the summer and fall of 1918 ... the new 369th distinguished itself as a courageous and effective fighting outfit, earning the nickname of the 'Hellfighters' for its exploits, and emerging after the Allied victory in November as one of the most highly decorated American units of the war."
Lieutenant James Reese Europe, like John Philip Sousa, should have been an integral part of my fourth grade music history class. In the well-chosen words of Irving Elmer Bell: "If you deny a people's individual or collective achievements, your denial diminishes all people."
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA, or e-mail <BrandonAstorJones@hotmail.com>. You can visit the author's web site at http://www.BrandonAstorJones.com>>.]