Arthur Briggs (musician)

James Arthur Briggs (April 9, 1901 Grenada – July 15, 1991, Paris) was a British Caribbean jazz trumpeter and orchestra leader who performed in Europe.

He set up a band with Freddy Johnson and worked with artists all over Europe, including Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt.

[3] At the start of World War II Briggs, as a British passport holder, was interned in the SS Polizeihaftlager for political prisoners near Compiègne.

The British jazz musician Tom Waltham who was interned at the Camp des Internés Britanniques in Saint-Denis, petitioned the German authorities to have Briggs moved there and this was granted.

A printed program survives of a 1942 Concert Symphonique including works by Albeniz, Granados, de Falla, Mozart, Handel, Franck and Liszt.