A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese EuropeIn 1919, the world stood at the threshold of the Jazz Age. The man who had ushered it there, however, lay murdered and would soon plunge from international fame to historical obscurity. It was a fate few would have predicted for James Reese Europe; he was then at the pinnacle of his career as a composer, conductor, and organizer in the black community, with the promise of even greater heights to come. People don't realize yet today what we lost when