The Great War's Unexpected Gift

The Hellfighters Arrive

In 1917, the 369th Infantry Regiment—the "Harlem Hellfighters"—brought more than military prowess to France. Their band, led by James Reese Europe, introduced French audiences to ragtime and early jazz. These African American soldiers, facing discrimination at home, found in France an appreciative audience that judged them by their music, not their skin color.

The band's performances across France created a sensation. Their syncopated rhythms, improvisation, and instrumental techniques were unlike anything in European music. French audiences, already primed by the avant-garde movements in visual arts and literature, recognized jazz as another form of modernist expression.

The Jazz Age Begins

After the armistice, many American musicians remained in France or quickly returned. Paris in the 1920s became a haven for African American artists fleeing Jim Crow laws. The city's liberal atmosphere, combined with genuine appreciation for jazz, created an environment where the music could flourish without the racial barriers that constrained it in America.

Montmartre became jazz's European epicenter. Clubs like Bricktop's, owned by the African American performer Ada "Bricktop" Smith, and Le Grand Duc showcased both American expatriates and emerging French jazz musicians. The mix of American authenticity and French sophistication created a unique jazz culture that would influence the music's global development.