[Dixielandjazz] Axe in the vernacular

[Paul Edgerton]

You mean they was axed to leave?

What kind of music is played on a real axe?

-- Paul Edgerton

Ken Gates wrote:
> Looking thru some old Mississippi Rags, I ran across the Dec 2000
> edition to find this---
> "On the Streckfus riverboat line, when an errant musician was about
> to be terminated, he would discover a shipboard fireaxe on his band
> stand chair.  Upon seeing it, he immediately knew that he was "axed"
> from the job."
>
> Thus began the terminology of "axe" in musicians vernacular.
>
> Anybody have a different version?