Experience the Classic Jazz of 'Darktown Strutters' Ball' (1919) by James Reese Europe & 369th US Infantry 🎶

“The Darktown Strutters' Ball” is one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.

Words and music are by Shelton Brooks.

I've got some good news, honey--
An invitation to the Darktown Ball!
It's a very swell affair--
All the "highbrowns" will be there.

I'll wear my high silk hat, and a frocktail coat.
You wear your Paris gown and your new silk shawl--
There ain't no doubt about it, babe.
We'll be the best dressed in the hall.

I'll be down to get you in a taxi, honey--
You better be ready about half past eight.
Now, dearie, don't be late--
I want to be there when the band starts playing.

Remember when we get there, honey,
The two steps--I'm goin' to have em all.
Goin' to dance out both my shoes
When they play the "Jelly Roll Blues"
Tomorrow night at the Darktown Strutters' Ball.

We'll meet our hightoned neighbors,
an exhibition of the "Baby dolls"--
And each one will do their best
Just to outclass all the rest.

And there'll be dancers from ev'ry foreign land,
The classics--buck and wing, and the wooden clog:
We'll win that fifty dollar prize
When we step out and "Walk the Dog."

"The Darktown Strutters' Ball"

James Reese Europe & the 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band

1919

Europe's music on Pathé discs is different from that of Europe's Society Orchestra issued on Victor discs five years earlier.

The musicians were different; popular music had changed; instead of making dance records, he now worked in a military band tradition, conducting different instruments than in earlier years. Whereas none of the Victor recordings featured vocals, some Pathés feature singers Noble Sissle and C. Creighton Thompson.

Moreover, different technology was used. It is unfortunate that his final discs are vertical-cut records. In the year the records were issued, hill-and-dale technology was quickly losing favor with record buyers. By 1920 nearly all talking machines were made for lateral-cut discs. Equipment for playing Pathé discs became relatively scarce in subsequent years. Had his records been made with lateral-cut technology, they might have enjoyed more popularity and his name might have been better remembered by subsequent generations.

After four sessions with Europe, the Pathé company issued a special flier announcing new titles: "Eleven records of the world's greatest exponent of syncopation just off the press." In bold type, the flier announced, "Jim Europe's jazz will live forever." Sadly, the music became relatively obscure.

Europe's musicians perform more in a military band tradition than in the new jazz idiom. Nonetheless, Europe is a significant pre-jazz artist or transitional figure, the most important African-American musical leader in the period when ragtime was on the wane but before the reign of King Oliver and Louis Armstrong.

Europe suffered a fatal stabbing two days after his band recorded six titles for Pathe. That recording session took place on May 7, 1919.