Jason Moran and the Jazz Ancestors by Rod Arroyo, FAICP
The 2025 Detroit Jazz Festival Artist-in-Residence is Jason Moran. Not only is he a great choice due to his musical talent, but he also possesses a special gift as a jazz educator.
Jason tells the story that jazz musician Randy Weston shared with him about James Reese Europe. Jason calls James Reese Europe the “Big Bang of Jazz.” Europe added more syncopation – blaring horns here and there – and changed the beat to create a new sound. Some thought his band had trick instruments. It was not true. He was teaching a new way to play. It would be known as syncopated music or a form of ragtime, and it would come to be recognized as an early form of jazz.
Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1881, and he moved to New York in 1904 to pursue a music career. He composed music, and he performed in musical theater. He and other Black musicians formed the Clef Club, a union, booking agency, and professional organization for Black musicians, and he was the club’s first President.
James Europe formed a 125-member Clef Club Symphony Orchestra, which performed a “Concert of Negro Music” at Carnegie Hall on May 2, 1912. This was the first time an orchestra of Black musicians played at Carnegie.
Europe enlisted in the 15th New York Infantry on September 18, 1916 and was later asked to form the 15th Regimental Band. It was renamed the 369th Infantry Regiment, and “Europe became the first African American officer to lead the first group of African American soldiers in active warfare in 1918.” They played music in public squares, when troops were headed to or returning from battle, and they played throughout Europe. The 369th, known as the “Hell Fighters”, is credited with igniting the jazz craze in France and Britain. As Moran notes: they “birthed an entire storm.”
When the band returned home, they toured the U.S., and this included a Carnegie Hall appearance on March 16, 1919. Two months later, Europe was killed by his drummer, Herbert Wright.
Moran has paid tribute to Europe through performances of Europe’s music and original compositions honoring Europe’s work.
Europe will also be known as a contributor to the “Harlem Renaissance,” which was just starting around the time of his death and continued through the 1920s to the early 1930s.
To learn more about Europe, this is an excellent resource: https://blogs.baylor.edu/specialcollections/2024/02/26/the-first-king-of-jazz-james-reese-europe/)
To listen to the interview with Jason Moran, connect to the Teaching Hard History podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/music-reconstructed-jason-moran-jazz-and-the/id1341785066?i=1000552040661 This podcast series is fantastic.
Any discussion about jazz origins must also include mention of another musician who had the title of “King of Jazz” or “First Man of Jazz,” Charles “Buddy” Bolden. Born in New Orleans in 1877, Bolden was a cornetist and bandleader. He had the title “King Bolden” in New Orleans clubs and other venues.
Many consider Bolden to have led the first jazz band. Jazz historian Ted Gioia has labelled Bolden the “father of jazz.” He notes “even if he did not invent jazz, he had mastered the recipe for it, which combined the rhythms of ragtime, the bent notes and chord patterns of the blues, and an instrumentation drawn from New Orleans brass bands and string ensembles.”
Bolden was only professionally active for a short period, from approximately 1898 to 1906. There are no known recordings of his music. It is unlikely that Bolden’s and Europe’s paths ever crossed.
Due to his erratic behavior, he was committed to the Louisiana State asylum in 1907, and he remained there until he died in 1931.
The term jazz emerged to describe this new form of music around 1915. As we celebrate the evolution of America’s classical music, it is important to remember both of these pioneers: James Reese Europe and Charles “Buddy” Bolden.
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