Chicago-based pianist-composer Reginald R. Robinson, a leading contemporary champion of ragtime, pays homage to one of the genre’s earliest originators with A Tribute to the Great James Reese Europe. This work, commissioned by SCP Jazz to commemorate the series' 25th anniversary, will receive its world premiere Nov. 2, when Robinson opens a double bill with the Branford Marsalis Quartet. A bandleader, composer and jazz/ragtime pioneer, James Reese Europe (1881-1919) shaped not only "the music of his own time, but also the sounds of future generation." His accomplishments, which included the first-ever concert in 1912 at Carnegie Hall of works composed by black Americans, have dimmed over the last century, in part because of his tragic early death. "People need to know about this music," said Robinson, a former recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, and regarded worldwide as one of the premier interpreters of ragtime. Read more at CSO Sounds & Stories