[Dixielandjazz] 'Mouldy Figs' term

[Dingo]

Dan,

Listmate Phil O'Rourke came up with the answer to this as recently as 12th
August, 1999 <g> when he wrote :

>This term was in use by about 1946 for those who liked the more
>traditional forms of jazz. Leonard feather was credited with
>inventing the term and to emphasise the, to him, "old fashioned"
>style of the music he used to spell it "Mouldy Figge".

>See the Guinness jazz Companion

However ...... a day earlier, Listmate, John Farrell supplied this answer:

It came to Britain during the Norman invasion of 1493. Apparently the
French
military bandsmen were quite fond of a traditional dish consisting of
mussels, figs and brandy - which in their dialect was called Moules de
Phygges - and mistakenly believed that the consumption of large quantities
thereof improved their powers of improvisation (remember that there were no
charts, washboards or chord books in those days).

The truth of the matter probably was that they gorged themselves on the
stuff simply to get themselves legless, because after the feast  their
improvisation naturally remained at its previous unremarkable level. Over
the centuries the name of the meal gradually became bastardized to mouldy
fig, and believe it or not,  the expression is still used to this day to
describe a musician who likes to drink a lot but can't play jazz for
toffee.

So there we be Dan, take your pick ~ and apologies if the formatting has
gone a bit ga-ga.
-=-
 John,
        Suffolk, England.
                    ?
___o00o__(°¿°)__o00o___
  You Play It - I'll Mix It
   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Augustine" <ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu>
To: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: 16 July 2003 21:32
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] 'Mouldy Figs' term


: DJML (anybody)--
:     This message reminded me that i've always been curious who came up
with the term 'mouldy fig' (or even 'Mouldye Fygg') to pertain to dixieland
(or trad, or whatever).  Who did it, when, and what does it really mean?
:     I checked the OED about this, and they seemed to think some guy from
France wrote a letter to a magazine about dixieland and signed it 'Moldy
Fig'.  Was that it?  Was this a popular and tasty French snack (at least to
them, who like snails and other comestibles of doubtful succulence)?
: