With a story marked by wartime heroism, sacrifice, show business
savvy, artistic innovation, and an unspeakably tragic murder, James
Reese Europe’s life contains every element required for a Hollywood
epic.
The African-American bandleader, composer and arranger navigated the
transition from ragtime to jazz in the first decades of the 20th
century, laying down the conceptual and organizational foundations for
the music that flowered in speakeasys, dance halls and Broadway theaters
during the Harlem Renaissance. More than two decades before Benny
Goodman’s landmark foray brought the swing era into Carnegie Hall,
Europe presented his Clef Club Orchestra in the august venue for a
program of proudly black music in 1912.
Despite his foundational role in modern American music, Europe is
barely remembered today, a situation that pianist Jason Moran is
determined to rectify. His Stanford Live residency kicks off Jan. 22
with his multimedia program “James Reese Europe and the Absence of
Ruin,” a vivid reimagining of music recorded in France by the Harlem
Hellfighters, the band Europe assembled from the African-American 369th
regiment.
Performing across France, Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters
introduced the continent to the latest innovation in African-American
music, leaving a lasting impression on the nation’s cultural
establishment. “I like to say, think of Kendrick Lamar volunteering to
go fight in the war,” Moran says. “You’re at the top, the voice of the
people, and now you’re going to go fight a war. He’s looking for a
broadness and a scale that really does set off the big band era,
introducing ideas that musicians can follow.” earned international acclaim amidst
the devastation of World War I, Moran is referencing a different
conflict. Borrowing from Jamaican-born historian Orlando Patterson’s
1967 novel “An Absence of Ruins,” the title refers to the lack of
imposing architectural artifacts from which people in the African
diaspora can draw inspiration. Moran’s reclamation project turns the
forgotten bandleader into an American Acropolis.
Indeed, Europe was an institution builder, creating organizations
that boosted job opportunities for black musicians. As the music
director for the trend-setting dancing duo Vernon and Irene Castle he
created moves like the foxtrot that continue to define ballroom dancing
today. Europe was at the height of his career when he volunteered for
military service, and he was greeted as a hero when he returned home
with his Harlem Hellfighters.
Touring the United States in 1919 just as a wave of vicious
anti-black riots greeted returning African-American veterans, Europe was
stabbed to death by a member of his orchestra in May. Harlem
Hellfighter Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake created the landmark hit 1921
Broadway show “Shuffle Along” partly as a tribute to Europe.
For “Absence of Ruin” Moran and his 10-piece band reinterpret pieces
Europe recorded in France like “How You Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm”
and “All of No Man’s Land is Ours,” a piece “that you can see as a
metaphor for when they’re going to return home,” Moran says.
“But we change them, much as we’ve done with the music of Fats Waller
and Thelonious Monk. Europe’s recordings are so rich, with so many
layers. The singing, the precision of the percussion and the virtuosity
of the brass is unbelievable.”
A MacArthur Fellow and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for jazz,
Moran has presented a wider array of music in the Bay Area over the past
two decades than just about any other jazz artist who doesn’t live
here. He’s played for skateboarders and videogamers as an SFJazz
resident artistic director, and collaborated with Alonzo King’s Lines
Ballet.
For his last Stanford Live performance he reinvented Thelonious
Monk’s epochal 1959 concert at New York City’s Town Hall. This residency
includes a screening of Ava DuVernay’s 2014 Oscar-winning film “Selma”
on Jan. 25 accompanied by Moran and guitarist Marvin Sewell performing
the pianist’s score live with a full orchestra conducted by Sarah Hicks.
Longtime collaborators Moran and Sewell also perform duo at Kuumbwa
on Jan. 27, a follow up to their first mano-a-mano encounter last year
at the Smithsonian as part of the exhibition “Between Worlds: The Art of
Bill Traylor.” They first met as member of vocalist Cassandra Wilson’s
band in the late 1990s, and Moran describes Sewell as “my blues big
brother.
“He showed me a bunch of music that filled in a large hole in my own
playing. I think he’s one of the best guitarists in the world but he’s
overlooked sometimes because his sensibility is too bluesy for the jazz
players and too jazzy for the blues players.”
from www.mercurynews.com