People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe. He was the savior of Negro musicians … in a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.
- Eubie Blake
When I was a kid in grade school, I first saw Fred Astaire on the after-school TV matinee movies. It was Monday, the first day of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Week. You can read more about that here:mid-1970s
Flying Down To Rio was playing. I loved it and instantly became enamored of Fred Astaire. On Friday, they showed The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, which was unlike all the others I had watched during the week - it ended in tragedy. I did not see that coming.
Of course, Fred Astaire played Vernon Castle, who died at the end of the film in an airplane crash. After four days of happy endings in Flying Down To Rio, Follow the Fleet, Top Hat, and Swing Time, Fred was gone - that film stunned me a little.
Last week, while reading an article about jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran’s new record From the Dancehall to the Battlefield, I was reminded again about Vernon and Irene Castle. The article mentions Castle House Rag, a dance song written for them by James Reese Europe. As it turns out, James Reese Europe was the Castles’ musical director. This important partnership offered both parties substantial rewards and advanced both their positions in society.
This week on that Big River called Jazz, we take a look at the great American ragtime composer, musician, bandleader, and war hero James Reese Europe.
James Reese Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama roughly fifteen years after the end of the Civil War. In 1889, the Europe family moved to Washington, D.C., where James studied the violin with Joseph Douglas, the grandson of Fredrick Douglas. It was through Douglas that James learned liberation speaks not only from the mind but from the instrument. After their father passed away suddenly in 1899, the oldest son John went to New York. In 1903, James joined him and soon became a leading figure in the Black musical community.
On July 18, 1908, at George Walker’s Harlem home at 52 West 153rd Street, eleven of the most prominent names in theater established an all-Black theatrical organization. They called themselves “The Frogs”. Their mission was to create an all-Black professional support network for the theater industry. James Reese Europe was a member.
Europe’s star rose quickly and in 1910 he organized and became the bandleader for the Clef Club, a society for Black Americans in the music industry.
James Reese Europe and the Clef Club Orchestra at the Manhattan Casino, Ma, 1911
The club made history two years later by playing a benefit at Carnegie Hall for The Music School Settlement for Colored People, Inc. in Harlem:
The Clef Club’s performance featured music written solely by Black composers. It was a tremendous hit. However, not long after, Europe quit the Clef Club to form his own orchestra, which later became known as Europe’s Society Orchestra. During 1913, Europe’s orchestra was a fixture at the city’s endless private, high-society parties.
During the same time, Vernon and Irene Castle were at the peak of their popularity and showcasing a new American Ragtime that helped make social dancing increasingly respectable.
The Castles’ career first took off in Paris in 1911, then Germany, and the following year the couple was back in their native New York. They were the talk of the town.
Sometime in the autumn of 1913, the Castles found themselves dancing at private parties with music provided by Europe’s Society Orchestra. Impressed by the band’s infectious syncopations and rhythms, they hired them on the spot. Irene Castle later wrote, Europe was a dignified and "…skilled musician and one of the first to take jazz out of the saloons and make it respectable. All the men in his orchestra could read music, a rarity in those days."
Shortly after Europe and the Castles’ historic meeting, the Castles opened their permanent high-class nightclub “Sans Souci”, a swank little cabaret located underneath the corner of 42nd and Broadway - opening night tickets sold for $100. Europe's Society Orchestra provided the music for six months until the Fire Marshall shut it down. Later they would open their dance school "Castle House.”
The Castle House, located on East 46th street across from the Ritz-Carlton hotel, was almost exclusively a place for the wealthy and upper middle classes. Again, Europe and his musicians provided the dance music at Castle House.
Europe began composing songs designed especially for the Castles’ dances, such as the Castle Walk, Castle Lame Duck Waltz, and Castle House Rag, all recorded on February 10, 1914, by Victor Records - the first recording contract awarded to a black group by a major record label. Here is Europe’s Castle House Rag:
However, in 1914, with the outbreak of WWI, the collaboration between Europe and the Castles began to wain, as they both pursued more important matters.
On June 2, 1913, after six years of African Americans rallying to have their own military unit, Governor William Sulzer signed a bill authorizing the 15th Infantry of the New York National Guard. However, the regiment did not officially form until June 16, 1916, when William Hayward was appointed as Colonel.
On September 18, 1916, Europe was one of the first to enlist in New York’s 15th Infantry. In December, Colonel Hayward raised funds to form a regimental band and assigned Europe as bandmaster. The Colonel told him to put together "the best band in the U.S. Army." Europe’s friend and fellow musician and composer, Noble Sissle joined as drum major and lead singer. Europe also recruited eighteen Puerto Rican musicians, who are often overlooked in history and had a significant impact on the band’s success. Both Hayward and Europe hoped a regimental band would encourage enlistment. Once America entered World War I on April 7, 1917, the 15th Infantry was the fastest New York regiment to reach war-time strength of over two thousand men.
On June 29, 1916, the 15th Infantry was reorganized as the 369th Infantry Regiment and became known as The Harlem Hellfighters.
They were later given the nickname Hommes de Bronze (Men of Bronze) after the French witnessed their gallantry fighting in the trenches. They served 191 days in combat, longer than any other U.S. unit, and earned 170 French Croix de Guerre for bravery. Europe earned one of them. His citation reads in part:
This officer (Lt. James Reese Europe), a member of the 369th Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces, was the first black American to lead United States troops in battle during World War I. The unit, under fire for the first time, captured some powerful and energetically defended enemy positions, took the village of Bechault by main force, and brought back six cannons, many machine guns and a number of prisoners.
While at the front, Europe was gassed while leading a daring nighttime raid against the Germans. While recuperating in a French hospital, he wrote the song On Patrol in No Man's Land. After he got back to New York City, on March 14, 1919, he recorded the song with Noble Sissle for the Pathé label:
Interestingly, I hear some of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (Get In Line) in the banter near the end. At the same session, he also recorded All of No Man's Land is Ours. Here is the song’s sheet music:
...and the recording:
While writing this week’s journey, I re-watched The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. In the movie, the Castles are asked to do an impromptu dance for a Grand Duke at the Café de Paris. Without having had a chance to practice first with the orchestra, Vernon (Fred Astaire) tells the Maître d', “Tell ‘em to play Too Much Mustard.”, which was a popular Europe’s Society Orchestra song at the time:
Here’s that dance number from the film:
In 1915, at the height of his fame, Vernon left the entertainment business to learn to fly. In 1916, he travelled back to his native England to join the Royal Flying Corps. He was soon sent to the Western Front and completed over 150 combat missions, shot down two enemy aircraft, and in 1917 was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery.
In April 1917, after the U.S. entered the war, he was transferred to Camp Mohawk in Canada to teach flight school. During the winter of 1917-1918, Castle was sent to Camp Taliaferro in Texas, near Fort Worth, to train air cadets. On February 15, 1918, during a training exercise, Vernon Castle tragically died in an airplane crash.
A little over a year later, on May 9, 1919 in Boston, during a seemingly harmless argument, James Reese Europe was fatally stabbed with a small pocket knife by Herbert Wright, one of his two drummers. The entire country would carry the news the next day and New York City held a parade and public funeral, the first ever given an African-American.
I think the collaboration between James Reese Europe and the musicians in his Society Orchestra and the Castles’ was socially and racially progressive and served as a role model for integration of black and white elements of American society. Had James Reese Europe and Vernon Castle lived longer, perhaps artists who came after them would have been inspired by the way they were able to combined their African American and European American cultural elements with respect and dignity. Their lives and contributions provide important examples for us today.
Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in to explore the waters of Jazz hoofers Fred and Adele Astaire.
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