Travis Atria, M.A.M.C. 2007, is the author of Better Days will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris and a Nazi Prison Camp published on Jan. 7.

The book, based on groundbreaking research that included unprecedented access to Brigg’s oral memoir, is a document of jazz history, a fast-paced epic and an original tale of survival. Briggs’s was among the first pioneers to introduce jazz music to the world. During the legendary Jazz Age in Paris, Briggs’s trumpet provided the soundtrack and by the 1930s he was considered “the Louis Armstrong of Paris.” During the Great Depression he was considered “the greatest trumpeter in Europe.” Unfortunately he did not heed warnings to leave Paris before it fell to the Nazis, and in 1940, he was arrested and sent to the prison camp at Saint Denis.

Atria is also the co-author of Traveling Soul, the first comprehensive biography of Curtis Mayfield, which was published in 2016. He is a writer for Vigliano Associates, HOME Magazine in Gainesville and Wax Poetics.

Posted: January 6, 2020
Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged as: Travis Atria