Tribute to James Reese Europe
Spirit of Chicago Orchestra
Formation Jazz de la Musique de l'Air
Fremeau & Associes
Sergio A. Mims writes:
The French record label Fremeau & Associes will be releasing in late September their latest CD recording Tribute to James Reese Europe with music performed by the Spirit of Chicago Orchestra and the Formation Jazz de la Musique de l'Air.
Labeled
by the French and the American commissions for the centenary of the
Great War, this release celebrates the 100th anniversary of the arrival
in France of jazz, brought over by black American troops (the famous
Harlem Hell Fighters) mobilized in that First World War. Produced by the
Hot Club Jazz Iroise and arranged by Stan Laferriere, this album is a
tribute to James Reese Europe, an influential Harlem composer post- 1910
— he joined the National Guard and fought alongside French soldiers —
and a historic figure in jazz and the struggle for civil rights.
Two
orchestras relay each other in presenting this fabulous material: the
Spirit of Chicago Orchestra, which plays in the purest rag-time
tradition of jazz in its embryonic stage, and the Jazz Formation of the
Air Force Band, which brings these melodies right up to date and shows
just how much these melodies that go back to the origins of jazz have
inestimable value.
Augustin Bondoux
/ Patrick Frémeaux
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