The "soul patch"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 00:57:05 -0500, Mullins, Bill
<Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:

>The Question Behind Those Beards
>By HERBERT MITGANG
>New York Times (1857-Current file); Apr 27, 1958;  pg. SM42
>"Stand in front of a building on Broadway frequented by musicians; the
>bopster and hipster goatees on display are an every-day mark of the cool
>jazz man."

Well, without some names or faces, we don't know if "goatee" referred to
the classic chin whiskers of Thelonious Monk, the soul patch of Dizzy
Gillespie, or both.

I've come across both "jazz dab" and "jazz dot" to describe Dizzy's tuft,
but I have yet to find any contemporaneous usage.


--Ben Zimmer