William Hayward, eventually succeeded in getting his black troops, who were forbidden from fighting alongside white American soldiers, transferred to the French army they were rechristened the 369th Infantry Regiment, but the French soon began to call them the Hellfighters, and with good reason. By then, he had passed the officer’s exam and was proud to have a machine-gun unit under his command.Īt the end of 1917, the 15th sailed for France, where it was assigned to noncombat duties. He joined the newly formed 15th Infantry Regiment (Colored), he explained to his friend and fellow musician Noble Sissle, because "there has never been such an organization of Negro men that will bring together all classes…for a common good." That motivation must have been front-and-center in his mind when, though lacking interest in brassy military music, he agreed to organize a regimental band. She bore his only child, James Reese Europe, Jr., in February 1917, just months after James,Sr., enlisted in the New York National Guard. The school made $5,000 that evening, and the Clef Club’s musicians were invited to play at private parties as far away as London and Paris.Įurope married a widow threes years his senior, Willie Angrom Starke, in 1913, but he maintained a previous relationship with Bessie Simms, a dancer a decade younger than he was. After an advance editorial asserted that "Negroes have given us the only music of our own that is American – national, original and real," a standing-room-only, mixed-race audience poured into the auditorium to hear a black orchestra that included a bank of upright pianos manned by dexterous ragtime players. Happily, the New York Evening Journal made the May event a must-attend affair. To lend the first of the concerts prestige, they rented Carnegie Hall, giving them 3,000 seats to fill.
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In 1912, to help raise funds for a Harlem music school, Clef Club members joined the school’s white backers in planning a series of landmark concerts showcasing African-Americans. Europe in turn said it was inspired by the music of W.C. Vernon credited their most popular invention, the foxtrot, to their bandleader, saying African-Americans had been doing it for years.
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Unusually for the era, they worked from musical scores, following them so closely that Europe’s associate Eubie Blake quipped, "If a fly lit on that paper he got played." Europe composed dozens of numbers for the Castles, including "Castles’ Half and Half" and "Castle Walk," both named for steps the pair introduced.
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In 1913 he became their bandleader, and Irene’s admiration is evident in her description of his "profound knowledge of music." Jim Europe’s black instrumentalists wore tuxedoes while performing. His alliance with Vernon and Irene Castle, a white dance duo who were hugely popular in the years before World War I, made him a genuine celebrity. He already had patrons of his own, since he had been performing at parties given by the Wanamakers, the prominent department-store family, and had become known to the smart set there. But another form of public entertainment, social dancing, would soon propel society toward the Roaring Twenties, and the fad would mean plenty of work for Jim Europe.īecause the musicians’ union didn’t admit blacks, Europe and some friends created their own organizations, the Clef Club, which served them as a booking agency.
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He ventured farther north, to New York City, shortly after the turn of the century and spent several years there playing mandolin and piano in black musical theater.Īfter about 1910 a shift in popular taste resulted in fewer black theatrical productions. In one week alone, his band played for both Virginia’s governor and President Wilson’s daughter.Įurope was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1880 and moved with his family to Washington, D.C., when he was nine. The paper reported that he needed three secretaries to keep abreast of all his musical activities. IN THE SPRING OF 1914 JAMES Reese Europe was "the busiest man in New York," according to the New York News. (THIS ARTICLE APPEARS COURTESY OF AMERICAN LEGACY MAGAZINE-FALL 2005 EDITION COPYRIGHTED 2005) James Reese Europe introduced Americans to the foxtrot, the French to ragtime, and black troops to the trenches of World War I before his tragically early death.