Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1919-05-03

the muScllanS from adding to their music
more than | wish them to. Whenever pos
sible they all embroder their parts in order
to produce new, peculiar sounds Some of
these effects are excellent and some are
not, and l have to be continually on the
lookout to cut out the results of my mu-
sicians' originality"
The news form Paris is so filled with
weightier matters and the French papers
are so much less loquacious than our Anglo
Saxon ones on the lighter sides of life that,
until the Lieutenant speaks we haven't
heard of the impression jazz has made on
the French:
Il recall one incident in particular. From
last February to last August l had been in
the trenches, in command of my machine
gun squad. l had been through the terriffi
general attack in Champagne when General
Gouraud annihilated the enemy by his
strategy and finally put an end to their
hopes Of victory, and l had been through
many a smaller engagement. I can tell
you that music was one of the things fur
thest from my mind when one day, Just
before the Allied Conference in Paris on
August Is, Colonel Hayward came to me
and said:
Lieutenant Europe, [ want you to 90
back to your band and give a single con-
cert in Paris
Il protested, telling him that 1 hadn t
led the band since February, but he in
sisted. Well, l went back to my band, and
with it l went to Paris. What was to be
our only concert was in the Theatre DIES
Champs-Elysees. Before we had played two
numbers the audience went Wild We had
conquered Paris. General Bliss and French
high officers who had heard us insisted that
we should stay in Paris, and there we
stayed for eight weeks. Everywhere we
gave concert it was a riot but the SUI
preme moment came in the Tuieries Gar
dens when we gave a concert in con- unc-
ton with the greatest bands in the world
the British Grenadiers' Band, the best band
OF the Garde Republican,, and the Royal
Italian Band. My band, of course, could
not compare with any of these, yet the
crowd, and it was such a crowd as | never
saw anywhere else in the world deserted
them for us. We played to $4,000 people
at least, and had we wished it, we might
be playing yet.
''After the concert was over the leader
OF the band Of the Garde Republican, came
over and asked me for the score of one of
the jazz compositions we had played He
said he wanted his band to play it, | gave
it to him. and the next day he again came
to see me. He explained that he couldn'
seem to get the effects I got and asked me
to go to rehearsal. I went with him. The
great band played the composition superbly
but he was right: the jazz effects were
missing. [ took an instrument and showed
him how it could be done, and he told me
that his own musicians felt sure that my
band had used special instruments. Indeed,
some OF them, afterWard attending one of
my rehearsals, did not believe what I had
said until after they had examined the in
struments used by my men,"
1t is the feeling of this musician, who, in
deed before the war supplied most Of the
music in New York dancing circles, that
higher plane in music may be attained by
Negroes if they stick to their own form. He
concludes
81 have come back from France more
firmly convinced than ever that Negroes
should write Negro music. We have our
own racial feeling and if we try to copy
whites we will make bad copies I noticed