Download or read book A Life in Ragtime written by Reid Badger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-12 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Reese Europe is one of the important transitional figures in American music. As a composer at the height of ragtime, he had a strong influence on the first generation of jazz musicians who were to follow. Europe's life reveals much about the role of black musicians in American culture in a period when it was presumed they had little place.