James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield
Jason Moran is one of jazz and modern American music’s most engaging and historically attuned artists. With a 10-piece expansion of his renowned Bandwagon trio, Moran celebrates the foundational, history-changing artistry of James Reese Europe—who brought the first taste of jazz not only to Carnegie Hall in 1912, but also to France during WWI, where he toured and fought with his 369th Infantry Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters. “It’s a concert that dives into the emotion of [Europe’s] music,” says Moran. “It’s not a museum piece—it’s a meditation … I’m thankful for his compositions, but even more for his imagination of what America can be.”