Arthur Briggs

Arthur Briggs distinguished himself as an accomplished trumpeter early in jazz history, related by blood to tuba specialist Pete Briggs, who appeared on Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven recordings of 1927. Because he resided primarily in Europe across the greater part of his career, his profile remained limited within the United States. He took up the trumpet while still young and served in the 369th U.S. Infantry Band, although his age kept him from overseas duty throughout World War I.

Briggs reached Europe for the first time in June 1919 as part of Will Marion Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra, an ensemble that also featured Sidney Bechet. After appearances in England and France the group sailed back to the United States in 1921. A brief period with Leslie Howard's Orchestra came next, followed by Briggs's return to Europe in 1922, where he organized his own Savoy Syncopated Orchestra and established its base in Belgium. The band later appeared in Vienna and performed in Germany between 1926 and 1928.

He collaborated intermittently with Noble Sissle across European engagements from 1928 to 1930, accompanied Sissle on a short visit to the United States in 1931, and then resumed work abroad. During the 1930s Briggs co-directed a group with pianist Freddy Johnson, fronted several additional ensembles of his own, recorded with Coleman Hawkins in 1935 and with Django Reinhardt, and was widely regarded as one of Europe's finest trumpeters, including during appearances in Egypt.

In the final years of World War II, while under Nazi occupation, Briggs was held in a concentration camp yet survived and resumed performing in 1945. He continued to work regularly in France until the mid-1960s, at which point he became a music instructor and received an appointment as professor in 1964.

Arthur Briggs's Savoy Syncopators' Orchestra produced no fewer than 64 selections in Berlin in 1927, chiefly dance-band arrangements that included occasional jazz solos. He also supervised single sessions in 1929, in 1933 (four titles supported by Freddy Johnson), in 1940 (four numbers featuring Django Reinhardt), in 1945 (two titles), and ten additional pieces with a studio orchestra in 1951. With the exception of the 1933 and 1940 dates, all of Briggs's recordings as a leader remain largely unknown.