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James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant (2005) by Ronald Herd II

Originally published on eJazzNews · · By John Gilbert · Book Reviews

In February 2006 eJazzNews published John Gilbert’s review of James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant, an illustrated book by the artist Ronald Herd II, who signs his work R2C2H2. Its subject, James Reese Europe (1880-1919), led Black musicians into Carnegie Hall in 1912 and directed the band of New York’s 369th Infantry, the Harlem Hellfighters, in France during World War I. He died in Boston in May 1919 after one of his own drummers stabbed him.

What the 2006 review said

Gilbert, whose review ended with a pointer to California Coast Jazz, called the book a well documented account of a war hero who advanced the cause of Black musicians at a time of open racism, and praised Herd’s illustrations in a folk-art style. He summarized the story the book tells: Europe founded the Clef Club, led the first Black orchestra to record and to play Carnegie Hall, was caught in a gas attack in France, led the Hellfighters band, influenced Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and was killed at 39 by a member of his band. He ended by calling it “a book of historical significance in both jazz, race relations and heroism.”

Some of the review needs correcting. The admirer it calls “Hubie Blake” is the composer and pianist Eubie Blake. The Boston Public Library describes the Clef Club, founded in 1910, as a social club and booking agency for Black musicians rather than a trade union. The “first to record” claim is hard to prove; what is documented is that Europe’s Society Orchestra recorded for the Victor company in 1913 and 1914. The regiment’s record does not need the “most decorated” label the review repeats: France awarded the Croix de Guerre to about 170 of its men and a citation to the whole unit. The story that the young George Gershwin listened outside a Harlem club where Europe played comes from the review and is not confirmed here.

About the book

Herd self-published the book in 2005. His blog sold it through Amazon and BookSurge, and library records list a print-on-demand CreateSpace edition of about 90 pages (ISBN 1-4196-0245-4). The same blog for the book quoted Gilbert’s review in April 2006, with a credit to eJazzNews.

Who James Reese Europe was

Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama, on February 22, 1880, and grew up in Washington, D.C., where he studied piano and violin. In New York he organized the Clef Club in 1910, and in May 1912 he brought about 125 musicians and singers to Carnegie Hall for a Concert of Negro Music, with works by Will Marion Cook, Harry T. Burleigh, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and others. From 1913 he was musical director for the dancers Vernon and Irene Castle, writing and recording dance music for them.

In 1916 he joined the 15th New York National Guard regiment, which became the 369th Infantry. Commissioned as a lieutenant, he commanded a machine-gun company and led the regimental band, which played across France and is often credited with bringing early jazz to French audiences. After a welcome-home parade on Fifth Avenue on February 17, 1919, the band went on tour and recorded for Pathé. On May 9, 1919, during an intermission at Mechanics Hall in Boston, drummer Herbert Wright stabbed Europe in the neck with a penknife after a dispute; Europe died in hospital hours later. Wright was sentenced to 15 years and served eight. Europe received the first public funeral given to a Black American in New York City and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He died on the threshold of the decade later called the Jazz Age.

What happened next

In May 2019 the US World War I Centennial Commission marked the hundredth anniversary of his death by revisiting the New York Times report of the killing, and in August 2021 a law awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the 369th Infantry Regiment for its service in World War I. Herd’s blog for the book has had no new posts since 2013.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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