[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Etymology
Paul Edgerton
paul.edgerton at gmail.com
Wed Mar 25 23:18:26 PDT 2009
Did you mean <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word)> ??
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 9:15 PM, Hal Vickery <hvickery_80 at msn.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'll try this one more time. The link to that Wikipedia article is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word>). If it doesn't go through right this time, I give up.
>
> Hal Vickery
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Hal Vickery<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com>
> To: Hal Vickery<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com>
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List<mailto:dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 10:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Etymology
>
>
> Let's try again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word%3Chttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word>>)
>
> More got put into the link than was supposed to for some reason.
>
> Hal Vickery
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Brian Harvey<mailto:brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk<mailto:brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk>>
> To: Hal Vickery<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com>>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:58 PM
> Subject: RE: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Etymology
>
>
> Sadly that Wikipedia page doesn't come up.Brian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com<mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com<mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com%3Cmailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com>>
> [mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com]On Behalf Of Hal Vickery
> Sent: 25 March 2009 20:10
> To: brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk<mailto:brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk<mailto:brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk%3Cmailto:brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk>>
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Etymology
>
>
> As Sportin' Life might say, "It ain't necessarily so," at least if Wikipedia
> is to be believed (which is often problematic):
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word<about:blank<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word%3Cabout:blank<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word%3Cabout:blank%3Chttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(word%3Cabout:blank>>>)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Stephen G Barbone<mailto:barbonestreet at earthlink.net<mailto:barbonestreet at earthlink.net<mailto:barbonestreet at earthlink.net%3Cmailto:barbonestreet at earthlink.net>>>
> To: Hal Vickery<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com<mailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com%3Cmailto:hvickery_80 at msn.com>>>
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List<mailto:dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com<mailto:dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com<mailto:dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com%3Cmailto:dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>>>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:49 PM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz Etymology
>
>
> For those interested in the more earthy origins of the word "jazz"
> and other words to describe OKOM, see below; Sourced at:
> http://www.apassion4jazz.net/etymology.html<http://www.apassion4jazz.net/ety<http://www.apassion4jazz.net/etymology.html%3Chttp://www.apassion4jazz.net/ety<http://www.apassion4jazz.net/etymology.html%3Chttp://www.apassion4jazz.net/ety%3Chttp://www.apassion4jazz.net/etymology.html%3Chttp://www.apassion4jazz.net/ety>>
> mology.html>
>
> This is why those of us who play for the kids should use the word
> "jazz" in our descriptions of the music we play, and why my band uses
> a little bawdy humor to describe what Jazz is.
>
> Pornography morphing into musical art? Who would have thought that?
> <grin>
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> http://www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband<http://www.myspace.com/barbon<http://www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband%3Chttp://www.myspace.com/barbon<http://www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband%3Chttp://www.myspace.com/barbon%3Chttp://www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband%3Chttp://www.myspace.com/barbon>>
> estreetjazzband>
>
> Etymology of Jazz
> JAS, JASS, JAZ, JASCZ or just plain JAZZ
> "If the truth was really known about the origins of Jazz, it would
> certainly never be mentioned in polite society."
>
> The expression arose sometime during the later 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 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."
> In c.1900 (see Jazz Timeline) another band adopted the same billing
> for an appearance at the Haymarket dance hall, it is said 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 (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). The vulgar word 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 1919 announcement 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. The presumed sexual origin is quite
> in accord with the development of many other related words, most
> notably:
> 'boogie-woogie' was 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' is 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 you 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 Begger'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 '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 or earlier, depending on the
> interpretation one gives to Frank Sinatra's 1956 record album Songs
> for Swinging Lovers.
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