[Dixielandjazz] Re: 'Mouldy Figs' term

[Dan Augustine]

>From: "Ron Wheeler" <rwheeler at flex.com>
>Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] 'Mouldy Figs' term
>Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 10:34:42 +1200
>
>Dan Augustine wrote...
>  > 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)?
>
>Dan and all...
>From the web site http://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz1945.htm
>"The term "Moldy Fig" (sometimes "Mouldy Figge") appears for the first time
>in reference to the old school Jazz players in the Esquire letters column in
>a letter from a Navy man named Sam Platt."
>This is on a time line that puts the first known use of the term in 1945.
>Several other sites reference the term.  Just go googling.
>Best from Wake Island,
>Ron Wheeler
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Fig fans--
     Amen, brother, and thanks to you and the others who have responded so ably.
     I did a google-search on "Leonard Feather"+fig and got more info 
from http://www.leonardfeather.com/feather_11.html

"In a letter to Esquire, A serviceman named Sam Platt, who felt that 
jazz had gone astray, coined the term 'moldy fig.' It was picked up 
by Leonard and others to mean anyone who only liked the older style 
of jazz. A 1946 article in the Jazz Record declared: 'Every single 
year there's a new crop of phoneys trying to pervert or suppress or 
emasculate jazz. This year it's Diz Gillespie...a few years ago it 
was Cab Calloway...' Leonard later admitted regretfully that during 
this period, his own articles were often venomous as well. He likened 
the figs to fascists in a tirade published in Metronome. A writer for 
The Record Changer responded by altering Leonard's name and those of 
other Metronome writers to resemble those of prominent Communists. 
One Esquire reader wrote a letter in which he declared Leonard 
incompetent and referred contemptuously to Coleman Hawkins and Roy 
Eldridge as 'jump boys.'"

(Interesting (especially in light of Brother Beebe's post about 
Feather's vitriol) that Feather should actually acknowledge his 
venom.)

The OED is has a little more detail:

"1. Jazz. A supporter or performer of traditional jazz as opposed to 
bebop. Also as adj.
   1945 Esquire Mar. 10/2 Why do aforementioned connoisseurs insist 
upon maintaining that the Chicago and New York (white) styles are the 
real Jazz, when it's perfectly obvious that New Orleans was and is 
the birthplace of the true 'stuff'?.. Sincerely, Moldy Fig, France. 
1945 S. PLATT in Esquire June 10/3, I wish to protest against the 
'Moldy Fig' genre of music lovers. There seems to be some perverse 
streak in critics such as Avakian or 'Moldy Fig' which prevents them 
from liking anything but the very oldest available."

Here it appears that "S. Platt" is actually _responding_ to a letter 
a month earlier by someone nicknamed "Moldy Fig, France".
     I may have to stop by UT's PCL library and check out the 
_Esquire_ for those volumes to see if propinquity brings clarity.

     Dan
-- 
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**  Dan Augustine    Austin, Texas   ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu     **
**     "The amount of noise which anyone can bear undisturbed         **
**      stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity."         **
**                             -- Arthur Schopenhauer                 **
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