[Dixielandjazz] More on the origin of the word jazz

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML and Musicians & Jazzfans list

From:  Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

On the Musicians & Jazzfans list, I had suggested that we close the
discussion about the origin of the word jazz.  Thanks to Gary Lawrence
Murphy of Owen Sound, Ontario, who had sent an extensive etymology of the
word jazz.

However, superjazzfan Mike Lynch reminded me and passed along his copy of
Clarence Major's book  Juba to Jive which includes a section on jazz.  ( I
had owned this book once but it went to the library book-sale when we
downsized.  The book had been recommended to me initially by University of
West Florida sociology professor and author Ray Oldenburg. Thanks, Mike.)  I
have included a brief introduction about Professor Major explaining his
credentials and experience.  Note that he does not include the word's early
use as a  West-coast baseball term, as this is a dictionary  of
African-American slang.  

Norman

_____________________________________________

From:  JUBA TO JIVE; A Dictionary of African-American Slang;

Edited with an introduction by Clarence Major C 1970 and 1994.  Penguin
Books.

 

Mr. Major  is author of seven novels and nine books of poetry.  He has
received multiple scholarships including a Fulbright.  His books have been
published in many languages. He has traveled extensively and lived in
various parts of the US and for extended periods in France and Italy.    He
has lectured n dozens of US Universities and as well as in England, France,
Liberia, West Germany, Ghana and Italy.  He is professor of African-American
literature and creative writing at the University of California at Davis.

 

JAZZ m. (1620s-1990s) very likely a modern word for jaja(Bantu), which means
to dance, to play music; early variants are "jas," "jass" and "jazy"; a type
of black music derived from blues, work songs, spirituals;  possibly a
Creole version of the Ki-Kongo word dinza, and the early New Orleans variant
"jizz"; also, from Creole patois ( to speed things up); another, less likely
theory has it that "jazz" is a French word meaning sexy or sensuous; the
word "jazz" attempts to define various kinds of musical forms created and
developed primarily by black Americans-from the African beat, spirituals and
work songs, to the music of New Orleans marching bands, the Storyville
district, the barrelhouse and cathouse innovations; also high-spirited;
known for years as a word or uncertain origin, is thought to have possibly
derived from the name Jasper, a slave in Louisiana whose dancing elicited
shouts of encouragement in which he was addressed by his nickname Jas; music
with instruments or voice or both.  Another theory was it that "jazz" is
derived from the African word jaiza-the sound of far-off drums; also means
sexual intercourse.

 

References   RFT, FS p. 104-Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit;
African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy, NY Random House 1983

 

WF, DAS  Wentworth, Harold, and Stuart Berg Flexner.  Dictionary of American
Slang, New York; Thomas Y Crowell Co.  1967 pp. 286-288.

 

Alan Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll.  New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950 pp.
56-60, 62-63, 80-85, 193-194,

 
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