In the last two years overdue recognition finally came to James Reese Europe in the form of a well researched biography - A Life in Ragtime, by Reid Badger, Oxford University Press, 1995 - and of a Cd reissue of a substantial chunk of his recordings - James Reese Europe Featuring Noble Sissle, International Association of Jazz Records Collectors IAJRC,CD 1012, 1996. The recorded legacy by Europe is tragically small in comparison with the role the man played in establishing the african american music tradition; and this role would have been even greater, were not his career interrupted in his early maturity at the age of 39. The IAJRC Cd is the integral reissue of all 24 sides cut by Europe for Pathé in 4 sessions, three in March and one in May, 1919. One must consider that the whole recorded output of Jim Europe consists of ten sides cut by his Society Orchestra for RCA between 1913 and 1914 - two of these sides were never issued - and 6 later sides by a cappella vocal groups bearing Europe's name. So this Cd is virtually an integral edition, at least for the post-war Europe. These sides were only partially available on a number of Cds by New World, Saydisc, RCA and Memphis Archives (this last not mentioned in the Badger discography, possibly because issued after the closing of the book). The musical assessment of these sides has already been made by Gunther Schuller in his classic Early Jazz book. He analyzed at length Memphis Blues concluding that it represents one of the earliest examples of orchestrated hot music, and that the second trombone break at the end may well be the first swinging jazz break on record. Both Schuller and Morgenstern are quoted by Badger pointing out Europe's key role in the transition between ragtime (Morgenstern) or "prehistory of jazz" (Schuller) to jazz proper. The theme of the relationship between Europe and ragtime warrants a specific research, as suggested by Mark Berresford's observation in his Cd notes that "no works of Scott Joplin or any of the other 'classic' ragtime composers were ever played". In this sense the title A Life in Ragtime can be misleading. In the closing chapters the possible long-term influence of Europe is barely suggested, while a very enlightening quotation of Howard McGhee about Charlie Parker is almost hidden in a strangely placed footnote. Defining Europe a "transitional" figure in my opinion does not fully make justice to his importance. He was a composer/arranger, a promoter and organizer, and a musical thinker; in all these roles he embodied a range of options only partially developed by the following history of jazz. Some of these options re-surfaced in recent times, with striking parallelisms between Europe and musicians included in what it usually termed the "avant-garde", namely Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra, with whose work I'm familiar. As a composer-arranger, Europe represent an approach typical to the New York scene, and his influence was instrumental to the birth of the big band as we know it today: it is the point of equilibrium between the opposite polarities of the small improvising group and the over-large formations of the Clef Club. In other words, through the work of composers like Duke Ellington - who knew Europe and his musical family when still in Washington - and arrangers like Don Redman, the problem of balance between improvisation and composition in large ensembles slowly regained importance after the explosion of New Orleans jazz, and it became a central issue in jazz history. But when in turn the Big Bands reached their maximum point of development the creative musicians looked again - among other possibilities - to large ensembles, and certain avant-garde experiences recall irresistibly the pre-war concerts promoted by Europe and his associates. As a musical thinker Europe gives the lie to the assertion that Braxton's eagerness to write and document his thinking besides his music is something extraneous to the African-american tradition (I'll mention in passing that from Badger's book I learned that John Thomas Douglass, Frederick's grandson, wrote his first opera in 1868, so Braxton's not doing anything new here at least in quality. He may still be the first african-american to write twelwe operas, though). Europe was more than willing to explain his music and its background. An example is interview A Negro explains jazz, published on the Literary Digest in April 1919 - the days of these sides - and republished in Eileen Southern's precious Readings In Black American Music, Norton 1971. It demonstrates the full range of Europe's musical thinking, his astute ethymology for the word jazz, meant to eliminate bawdy associations, his knowledge of the New Orleans tradition, his eagerness to investigate deeply the african roots of the music after an encounter in Paris with a Moroccan band ("I took a piece from them, and though white audiences seem to find it too discordant, I found it most sympathetic") which coexists with a clear picture of the role of composers in the "negro" tradition. These elements recur in Braxton's writings; reciprocally the Chicago "avant-garde" saxophonist repeatedly paid musical homage to brass bands and march music. In his own words: "Composition n. 19 is an extended structure for alternative parade music that is scored for one hundred tubas in four equal groups. ... I have long appreciated the reality position of parade music and the facts that it functions outside of imposed esoteric criteria. ... I originally composed the work as a vehicle to be performed on holidays, or for occasions of positive community achievements and/or remembrance. Composition n. 19 is dedicated to the composer James Scott. ... All of the language material utilized in this context is unisonly executed by the composite ensemble - even though the actual notes chosen by each instrumentalist will be different. ... As such the collective treatment of a staccato language in Composition n. 19 will activate possibly twenty-five different pitch renditions of that language (corresponding to the twenty-five different instrumentalists in each section) but the rate and rhythm of that staccato language will be uniformly executed by the composite ensemble." (from Composition Notes).Note the combination between ragtime - James Scott - brass bands and march music, and the implied connection with the music played by the Europe band in the famous parade of the black infantry battalion in Manhattan after WWI, one of the few "occasions of positive community achievements". Europe reached for the same balance described by Braxton, in a different era and dealing with different musicians, coming as it were from the opposite end of spectrum: "I have to call a daily rehearsal of my band to prevent the musicians from adding to their music more than I wish them to. Whenever possible, they all embroider their parts in order to produce new, peculiar sounds. Some of these effects are excellent and some are not, and I have to be continually on the lookout to cut out the results of musicians' originality" (A Negro explains Jazz). From the biographic point of view, in Chicago the strong connection between musical band training and jazz is of course emphasized by the career of Walter H. Dyett, known as Capt. Dyett, instructor to generations of jazz musicians and bandmaster in the USA Eight Infantry Band during his three decades tenure at DuSable High School; to play music Braxton enrolled in the Army, and curiously Paris was - for different reasons - the destination of the Chicago musicians leaving the USA at the end of the sixties, giving new meaning to the words sung by Noble Sissle in the Europe Cd: "How 'ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm/after they've seen Paris?" . As Sun Ra, James Reese Europe was a visionary and a taskmaster. Sun Ra's motto "The possible has already been done, we'll have to do the impossible" applies perfectly to many of the projects Europe started, when everybody said "He's nuts" as Eubie Blake remembered in his memoirs. Surely the main thrust behind the creation of the Clef Club runs parallel to the self-employment aims of organizations like AACM and BAG, while the Arkestra itself - with its internal rules - was a unit of survival besides a musical organization. In the catalogue of Europe's compositions that can be found in appendix to Badger's biography there are several titles of interest for a possibile Ra connection: Nubiana - a Nubian Love Song without words, 1904; Queen of the Nile, 1910, performed at the Manhattan Casino on Oct. 20 of that year. Surely there are as many pieces inspired to Hawaii, not to mention the South, all connected to dance fashion and/or necessities of shows for novelties in scenography and steps. However Europe was not a man to make choices without pondering their meaning, and this references to the great black ancient civilization are significant; the measure of their significance could be gauged only by recordings, apparently never realized. Indianola, among the Pathé sides, however hints at oriental atmospheres with time changes and a mixing of elements - trombone smears over carefully arranged section work and oompah rhythm - that recalls closely certain Sun Ra tracks in the transition period around his move to New York: China Gate on the Savoy Lp We Are In The Future, for example. In the sides by the Europe band we find what has been termed (Berresford again) a "free" interpretation of the arrangement, the sections tearing up at the written or memorized parts, very often every single element contributing his own phrasing and embellisment, with a polyphonic effect (see also the Braxton quote above). This very same approach, very different from the precise section work in vogue with Basie style big bands, can be heard in several interpretation of classic jazz compositions by Sun Ra's Arkestra: examples are Big John's Special, Yeah Man, King Porter Stomp, Lightnin' , Queer Notions (all to be found in the album Sunrise in Different Dimensions on hat ART). I strongly advise to listen to this album along Europe's Cd for a stimulating esperience. The two men were both born in Alabama, but this connection seems very thin. Europe was born in Mobile in 1880, but at 9 years of age moved to Washington and then to New York. Sun Ra "arrived on the planet" as Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, at the other end of the state, in 1914, only 5 years before Europe's assassination; he had his musical formation in Alabama before moving to Chicago in 1946. Very little is known of his early biography; on it presently research has been undergone by John F. Szwed for his forthcoming book. Connection through third parties are possible, for example through Sonny's first instructor, the renowned James T. "Fess" Whatley, band leader and teacher in Birmingham. Sun Ra led the life of professional musician for about twenty years before moving to Chicago, and among the countless encounters with black musicians it's highly possible that he got first hand news about Europe's activities, very prominent in the black community and well known by musicians in these days. Even the destiny of their bands is similar, as long standing associates Marshall Allen and William Tyers carried on the bands after the death of their founders and leaders. References to earthly places in Ra's titles are usually connected to ancient Africa, but in the last years of his career he Ra started to perform Alabama (issued on Friendly Galaxy, Leo Cd 188). This swinging three-note riff, almost spelling the title, is exposed by the brass, and then gives way to excellent solos by the trumpets (Ahmed Abdullah and Michael Ray) and trombone (Tyrone Hill) over a light comping by the leader and intricate section work by the saxophones, in what could be a fond remembrance of music heard in his birthplace built on elements we can fully discern through the mist of years and technical limitations in these Europe sides that are a veritable treasure and that belong in every music lover's collection. Francesco Martinelli back