There is great beauty in the life of Lieutenant James Reese Europe. Within the scholarship of who he was and what his music is, it becomes clear that the history surrounding him is a complex and tightly woven knot. Each strand of the cord holds a uniquely American history—a history that also births another complex knot: jazz.

Europe became a freedom fighter. He learned aspects of this at an early age as his violin teacher was the son of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass. An early lesson he understood was that sound and freedom aid one another. With his violin, he arrived in New York on a mission. Much of that mission revolved around music, but his greater mission became demanding equality for African American performers. He found fame by producing music for many societies: dances, parties, ceremonies, and concerts. In 1910, he formed the groundbreaking Clef Club, a union for African American musicians. His 1911 standing-room-only Carnegie Hall premiere of the Clef Club Orchestra was a sensation. His work developing dance music with the famous dancing duo of Vernon and Irene Castle innovated the fox-trot tempos and other dance steps. With each of these developments, Europe always found a larger stage—a place to test what is real and surreal.

In World War I, Europe found his largest and most dangerous stage. When he joined New York’s 15th Regiment—later becoming the 369th Infantry Harlem Hellfighters—he knew African American soldiers could not fight alongside white soldiers. His writing partner Noble Sissle was shocked Europe signed up. Sissle asked Europe if he could get out of the war, would he? Europe replied, “If I could, I would not. My country called me and I must answer. And if I live to come back, I will startle the world with my music.”

He indeed startled the world. A century later, we celebrate a brave individual among a company of soldiers, the Harlem Hellfighters, who predict a thought Martin Luther King Jr. would write some 47 years later in his letter from a Birmingham jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Hear we are.

—Jason Moran