The New Orleans Music Company

06/14/2026

06/05/2026

Some news you can use… June 2026

Founded at St. Augustine High School in 1991, by Dr. Brice "Doc" Miller, a third-generation jazz musician born and raised in New Orleans' 9thWard by way of New Orleans East. The New Orleans Music Company epitomizes the ESSENCE of New Orleans, providing the authentic SOUL, SOUNDS and CULTURE of t...

06/03/2026

In 1913, James Reese Europe became the first Black bandleader to be awarded a recording contract by a major label, signing with Victor. His Clef Club Orchestra had already performed at Carnegie Hall the year before.

In 1918, he led the band of the 369th Infantry Regiment — the Harlem Hellfighters — across more than 2,000 miles of France, performing for military and civilian audiences who had never heard anything like it. The French called it extraordinary. One band member described the first concert as starting "ragtimitis in France." It was, as far as the historical record shows, the first time jazz was heard on European soil.

Europe returned to New York in February 1919 with his regiment, marching up Fifth Avenue through Harlem to enormous crowds. He was, at that moment, one of the most famous musicians in America.

On 9 May 1919, during a break between sets at Mechanics Hall in Boston, a band member stabbed him in the neck. Europe died that night. He was 38.

Within a decade, the history of jazz had been rewritten to begin in New Orleans, with the music's origins attributed to a different city, different names, a different story. Europe's central role was largely erased — not by conspiracy, but by the ordinary process of who gets to write the history and what narrative they prefer.

Before Louis Armstrong made it to Europe. Before Miles Davis, before Coltrane, before anyone you know — it was James Reese Europe.