[Dixielandjazz] The Roots of Jazz

[Steve barbone]

Just in case we get too wound up on the artsy side of Jazz, here is a little
bit about the earthy side. :-) VBG

Old timers like Don Ingle can provide a lot more information about how jazz
men were viewed in the good old days, as well as how earthy things were.

Cheers,
Steve

Roots of "JAZZ"  From Big Bands Database (BBDB)
A little bit of Etymology.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

JAS, JASS, JAZ JASCZ, or just plain JAZZ

It is said that the expression -'Jazz'- arose during the late nineteenth
century in the better brothels of New Orleans, which provided music and
dancing as well as sex. The original jazz band, according to Herbert
Asbury's 'The Latin Quarter' (1938), was the 'Spasm (sic) Band', made up of
seven boys, aged twelve to fifteen, who first appeared in New Orleans about
1895. They advertised themselves as the "Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band." When,
about 1900, another band adopted the same billing for an appearance at the
Haymarket dance hall, the 'Spasms' loaded their pockets with rocks and
dropped by to protest the infringement. This prompted the owner of the hall
to repaint his advertising placards to read: "Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band!" If
the memories of Asbury's sources were correct--and he talked to two
surviving members of the 'Spasms' --this represents the word's
earliest-known appearance in print.

Jazz is not a bad word now, but almost certainly is of extremely low origin,
referring to copulation before it was applied to music, dancing, and
nonsense (i.e., "all that jazz"). "If the truth were known about the origin
of 'Jazz' it would never be mentioned in polite society . . .The vulgar word
'Jazz' was in general currency in dance halls thirty years or more ago"
(Clay Smith, "Etude," 9/24). "According to Raven I. McDavid, Sr., of
Greenville, S.C., the announcement, in 1919, of the first 'Jazz band' to
play in Columbia, where he was then serving in the state legislature,
inspired feelings of terror among the local Baptists such as what might have
been aroused by a personal appearance of Yahweh. Until that time 'jazz' had
never been heard in the Palmetto States except as a verb meaning to
copulate" (H. L. Mencken, 'The American Language,' Raven I. McDavid, Jr.,
1963). "'She never stepped out of line once in all the years we been teamed
up. I can't sell her on jazzing the chump now'" (William Lindsay Gresham,
'Nightmare Alley,' 1946).

'Jazz' probably comes from a Creole or perhaps African word, but exact
connections have not been proven. What ever, the presumed sexual origin is
quite in accord with the development of many other related words, most
notably: 

'boogie-woogie' 
--Used in the nineteenth century by blacks in the American South to refer to
secondary syphilis.

'gig' 
--The musician's engagement probably derives immediately from the 'gig' that
is a dance or party, but 'gig' and 'gigi' (or 'giggy') also are old slang
terms for the vulva; the first has been dated to the seventeenth century.

'jelly roll' 
--Black slang from the nineteenth century for the vulva, with various
related meanings, i.e. sexual intercourse, a loving woman, a man obsessed
with finding same. "'What yo' want?' she asked softly. 'Jelly roll?'"
(Thomas Wolfe, 'Look Homeward Angel,' 1929). The term probably derives from
'jelly,' meaning semen: "Give her cold jelly to take up her belly, And once
a day swinge her again" (John Fletcher, 'The Beggar's Bush,' 1622). Related
expressions include 'jelly bag,' referring both to the scrotum and the
female genitals; 'jerk [one's] jelly,' to masturbate; and 'jelly,' a
good-looking woman. 'Jelly Roll' appears in many blues songs, such as "I
Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None o' My Jelly Roll," "Nobody in Town Can Bake a
Jelly Roll Like Mine," and "Jelly Roll Blues," the last by Ferdinand Joseph
La Menthe "Jelly Roll" Morton (1885-1941).

'juke' 
--The modern 'jukebox' was preceded by a 'Juke house,' which was a brothel
to Southern blacks, the basic term coming from a Gullah word meaning
disorderly or wicked.

'Swing' 
--The now archaic 'swinge" was used for many years as a synonym for
copulation ("=swive," according to the OED's discreet definition). Note the
quote from 1622 in 'jelly roll' above. Or as John Dryden put it: "And that
baggage, Beatrix, how I would swinge her if I could" ('Enemy's Love,' 1668).
The oldest meaning of both 'swinge' and 'swing' deal with beating, striking,
and whipping (i.e., the swing of a weapon predates the back and forth
swaying of a swing or the rhythmic swing of music). For reasons that are not
hard to guess, the conjunction of violent and sexual senses within the same
word is very common . . .
In a more modern sense, Swing has been used describing 'wife-swapping' and
related activities involving one or more partners of either sex. It has been
so used from about 1964 on, -or earlier, depending on the interpretation one
gives to Frank Sinatra's 1956 record album 'Songs for Swinging Lovers").
This discourse (slightly modified) on Jazz Etymology was excerpted from
'Wicked Words', and was passed along to the BBDB by Mr. Raymundo Eli Rojas