New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-30
That Mysterious s'Jazz -
Lieutenant Europes Describes the Origin Of the Term
His Adventures in France-Negro Music Pleases
the French People - The Personnel of the Band

one day, just before the Allied con-
ference in Paris on August 18, Col
onel Hayward came to me and said:
Lieutenant Europe, want you to
go back to your band and give single
concert in Paris
II protested, telling him that
hadn't led the band since February.
but he insisted. Well, l went back to
my band, and with it went to Paris.
What was to be our only concert was
IN the Theatre des 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 Every
where we gave a concert it was a riot
but the supreme moment came in the
Tullerles Gardens when we gave a con-
cert in conjunction with the greatest
bands in the world-the British Grena-
diers' Band, the Band Garde Re-
publicaine, and the Royal Italian Band.
W. DohN, VI NOAASCJ SOuAu tiOC COlIl-
pare with any of these, yet the crowd,
and it was such q crowd as never
saw anywhere else in the world, de-
serted them for US. We played to 50,~
900 people at least, and had we wished
it we might be playing yet.
CATER the concert was over the lead
er Of the Band of the Garde Repub-
licaine came over and asked me for
the score Of one of the jazz compost
tions we had played. He said he
wanted his band to play it. I gave
it to him and the next day he again
came to see me. He explained that
he couldn't seem to get the effects l
got. and asked me to go to a rehearsal.
l went with him. The great band
played the composition superbly-but
he was right: the jass effects were
missing. I 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 spe-
cial instruments. Indeed, some Of them,
afterward attending one Of my re-
| hSeAA oesioS 0iO INV OSlIcVc WldL IdU
said until after they had examined the
instruments used by my men.
II 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. | noticed that the Morocco
negro bands played music which had
an affinity to ours. One piece, in
Zanzibar l took for my band, and
though white audiences seem to find
it too discordant l found it most SYM
pathetic We won France by playing
music which was ours and not pale
imitation of others, and if we are to
develop in America we must develop
along our own lines. Our musicians
do their best work when using negro
material. VIII Marion Cook, William
Tires, even Harry Burleigh and Col
eridge Taylor are not truly themselves
IN the music which expresses their
race. Mr.. Tires, for instance, writes
charming waltzes, but the best of these
have in them negro influences. The
music of our race springs from the
soil, and this is true to-day with no
other race, except possibly the Rus
SLAMS, and it is because of this that
and all my musicians have come to
love Russian music. Indeed, as far 9
am concerned, it is the only music
care for outside of negro"
The lieutenant then spoke Of the
manner in which he formed his band
when war broke out, / enlisted as
private in Colonel Hayward's regi-
ment, and had just passed my officers
examination when the colonel asked
me to form band told him that it
would be impossible, as the negro
musicians Of New York were paid too
we'll to have them give up their Jobs
to go to war However, Colonel Hay
ward raised $4,000 and told me to
get the musicians wherever could
get them. The reed players / got in
Porto Rico, the rest from all over
the country. I had only one New
York negro in the band-~my solo
cornetist. These are the men who
now compose the band and they are
all fighters as we'll as musicians, for
all have seen service in the trenches"