[Dixielandjazz] axe?

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Etymology of axe as jazz instrument (and later heavy metal rock implement)?
. The obscure ragtime banjoist Tom A. Hawke, perhaps?  

Well, there are a few early blues recordings with nice somewhat Mortonesque piano accompaniment by a Memphis-based performer called Edward Hatchett. Who positively caresses the keys. And one of  his  contemporaries, Willie Bloom, unrecorded but plagiarised  by Memphis Slim  (awful, messy player) did have a song "they call me the grinder man", presumably a reference to duets.  

       
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