memorial for James Reese Europe
One hundred years ago today … A memorial for James Reese Europe at St. Marks Methodist Episcopal Church on Fifty-third Street, near Eighth Avenue, featured speeches by luminaries and music by the Clef Club, an organization Europe had founded.
Note: we mentioned Europe,and his 369th Infantry, the Harlem Hellfighters of Wold War I, in posts of February 7, 1920 and February 9, 1921.
Reese, a pivotal figure in Black music history, had died roughly two years earlier. The Age laid out the plans for the memorial:
Among the speakers will be the Rev. Wm. H. Brooks, pastor of St. Mark's, who is also chaplain of the 15th regiment; Col. Arthur Little, commanding 15th Infantry, N. Y. G.; F. Q. Morton, Assistant District Attorney, and James Weldon Johnson, contributing editor of The Age.
The Clef Club Orchestra, under Lieut. Eugene Mikell and W. H. Tyers, and the 15th regiment band, under Lieut. Fred Simpson, will play, with vocal numbers by the Clef Club chorus, and William C. Elkins, baritone. Present officers of the Clef Club are Alexander Fennar, president; W. C. Elkins, vice president and choral director; H. F. Anderson, financial secretary: Marion Smith, recording secretary, A. S. Shaw, treasurer, Harry Hayes, sergeant-at arms, and P. W. Robinson, librarian. Mr. Elkins is chairman of the executive committee, and Lieut. Mikell is director of the orchestra.
(New York Age, 11 May 1921, p. 2).
The Eugene Mikell mentioned above had only recently taken on the role as musical director of the Clef Club, having been voted in at an April 23rd meeting.
New York Age, 23 April 1921, p.5. Newspapers.com.
Mikell, originally from South Carolina, had a long association with Europe, having been a member of the “Harlem Hellfighters.” Jazz historian Eugene Chadbourne writes that one makes account of the most important teachers of early jazz, Mikell “is assuredly on the short list.” He goes on: “While a listener cannot actually hear Mikell Sr. making sounds on a record, the sounds on many records do indeed owe him a debt” (Allmusic.com).
Note: We briefly mentioned the Clef Club before, as part of the background of Arnold Josiah Ford, Black Jew. We will delve further into its legacy in future posts.
New York Tribune, 13 February 1921, p.36. Newspapers.com.
– Jonathan Goldman, May 15, 2021
TAGS: music, funeral, Black music, African American history, military, jazz