Filling France Full of Jazz
Jim Europe believed that it was important how his musicians played the music; and his musicians did not play like the Europeans did. A peculiar word had begun to enter the general vocabulary as an appropriate descriptive term for that way of playing. The word was jazz—or jass, as it was first introduced through the popular 1917 recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band—but its meaning was not immediately clear. It was reported that French army officials were “exceedingly fond of the 'jazz' music furnished by the colored bands”. The transport carrying the regiment's 3rd Battalion home, the S.S. Le France, arrived in New York ahead of the other two ships with the rest of the regiment, which steamed past the Statue of Liberty and into the harbor on February 12. As the Stockholm was tied up and Europe's band played the men ashore, Major Little said he could not describe the scenes of joy and excitement of the bursting of pent up emotions.
Keywords: Jim Europe, jazz, France, New York, Stockholm, S.S. Le France
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