James Arthur Briggs (April 9, 1901 Grenada – July 15, 1991,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

er and orchestra leader who performed in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Career

Briggs was born in St. George's on the Caribbean island of Grenada on April 9, 1901, the youngest of ten children. He played the trumpet and eventually joined the 369th US Infantry Band. He was actually under age and moved his date of birth back to 1899. He was still considered too young to travel to Europe during the first World War. Briggs finally traveled to Europe in June of 1919 while playing with

Will Marion Cook William Mercer Cook (January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944), better known as Will Marion Cook, was an American composer, violinist, and choral director.Riis, Thomas (2007–2011)Cook, Will Marion ''Grove Music Online.'' Oxford Music Online. Retrieved ...

and his Southern Syncopated Orchestra. Admired for his technical virtuosity and clear tone, he worked in the United States and Europe for 10 years before eventually settling in Europe in 1931. He set up a band with

Freddy Johnson Freddy Johnson (March 12, 1904 – March 24, 1961) was an American jazz pianist and singer who gained popularity in the 1930s playing mostly swing style. Biography Johnson began playing professionally as Florence Mills' accompanist, and ...

and worked with artists all over Europe, including

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

and

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most ...

Imprisonment

At the start of World War II Briggs was interned in the SS Polizeihaftlager for political prisoners near

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 19 ...

. It is not known why he was there; he was an American citizen (this was not yet 1941) and not a political prisoner. The British jazz musician Tom Waltham who was interned at the Camp des Internés Britanniques in Saint-Denis, petitioned the German authorities to have Briggs moved there and this was granted. There Briggs and Waltham were at the heart of the camp's musical activities. Jazz was forbidden in the camp so the interned jazz musicians, many of African heritage, turned to playing classical music. A printed program survives of a 1942 ''Concert Symphonique'' including works by Albeniz, Granados, de Falla, Mozart, Handel, Franck and

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. Tom Waltham directed "Arthur Briggs et son Orchestre" (pp. 93–181 in Ref.). The concerts were a success and were popular with German officers. After the Liberation of Paris, Briggs organized and led his own bands.

Later life

In the 1960s, Briggs settled in Chantilly and he taught music. He died in 1991 in Paris. Arthur briggs montmartre

Recordings

Recordings of Briggs are very rare, but he recorded with both

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

and Clausophon extensively throughout the mid-late 1920s. Briggs can be heard very clearly on the 1935 record of "Blue Moon", with

and

. Briggs was not a relative of tubist Pete Briggs who recorded with Louis Armstrong.

References

Orchestra leaders 1901 births 1991 deaths American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American expatriates in France 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Grenadian emigrants to the United States {{Jazz-trumpeter-stub

Career

Imprisonment

Later life

Recordings

See also

References