James Reese Europe’s Harlem Hell Fighters Band – The Americus Brass Band

That was the question everyone was asking in 1919. James Reese Europe (1880 – 1919), director of New York’s 369th Infantry band – the legendary “Harlem Hell Fighters”, was interviewed by Grenville Vernon of the New York Tribune in March 1919 and asked to describe his concept of “jazz.” Europe explained that jazz is basically a performance style:

And in 1968, respected jazz historian Gunther Schuller wrote that the introduction of these stylings in actual band performance as they were in Europe’s legendary, 1919 Pathé recordings, resulted in what he called, “the first big band.”

The Pathé recordings made by Europe’s band in New York City in the spring of 1919 are among the earliest recordings made by African American band musicians and as Schuller wrote, represent an extremely important contribution to the history of jazz. These are the jazz stylings that the Americus Brass Band has recreated in their 2019 recording, The music of James Reese Europe’s Harlem Hell Fighters’ Band.

The Americus Brass Band’s (ABB) mission has always been to accurately recreate historic brass band music for modern audiences using original instruments and authentic performance practices. Our goal is to bring that music back to life by making it sound as much like the original as is possible. The biggest hurdle to overcome in the re-making of the “Harlem Hell Fighters” recordings was actually finding the music. After surviving months in the trenches of France in WWI, Lt. Europe was murdered in 1919, less than a week after recording the final piece and it was generally believed that his musical arrangements, and the secret to the band’s style and sound had died with him.

Yet the jazz stylings, as Europe described them, are clearly evident in the recordings they made and when ABB music director Richard Birkemeier discovered that Europe’s band was actually playing mostly published standard band music and adding the “jazz” stylings in performance, we were ready to recreate the music of his band as it actually sounded.

Reconstructing this music required hours of analysis of the original recordings, comparing them to the printed music to determine what was published arrangement and what were jazz stylings added by Europe’s musicians. There were no scores for most of this music so each ABB musician had to make the appropriate adjustments to their individual parts at the recording sessions. The spontaneity of performance that resulted may have actually resulted in a more authentic interpretation of the music than might otherwise have been possible.

Finally, we tried to match Europe’s instrumentation as closely as we could. The instruments we employed were all from the period and included: 3 cornets, 3 trombones, baritone, tuba, alto horn, piccolo/flute, Eb clarinet, 3 Bb clarinets, alto sax, tenor sax, and percussion (snare, woodblock, various traps, bass drum & cymbals.

We feel confident that his CD, recorded on the 100th anniversary of the original Pathé sessions, brings the music of James Reese Europe and his Hell Fighters’ Band back to life. We hope you agree.

For more detailed information, check out the Americus website:   https://americusbrassband.org/recordings/cd-jre/