early "jazz" in Variety

Fri May 3 17:22:17 UTC 2013

Correction: The query used at the Old Fulton New York Post Cards was this:

1900~~1916 AND "Jass Band" AND "New Orleans"

Garson

On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 1:16 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: early "jazz" in Variety
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ben, thanks for sharing information about your valuable search
> strategy for the recalcitrant Old Fulton database.
>
> The etymological research area of Jazz-Jass-Jas appears to me to be
> very complicated.So I examined a sub-problem. The Wikipedia entry for
> the word Jazz says the following (which may be inaccurate or
> obsolete):
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The first known use in New Orleans, discovered by lexicographer
> Benjamin Zimmer in 2009, appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on
> Nov. 14, 1916
> [End excerpt]
>
> One of your columns is cited:
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/jazz-a-tale-of-three-cities/
>
> In an effort to contribute I used the direct query interface of the
> Old Fulton database. Selecting "Boolean" allows the following query.
> The date restriction does not really work properly. The search engine
> will match any number between 1900 and 1916 in the data item.
>
> Query: 1900~~1916 AND "Jazz Band" AND "New Orleans"
>
> There were 41 matches including the following. Of course, it is
> possible that the New Orleans Jass Band did not originate in New
> Orleans. In fact, it may never have visited New Orleans. But the cite
> does provide evidence of a connection in September 1916. (Maybe this
> is already known.)
>
> [ref] 1916 September 23, New York Dramatic Mirror, REPORTS FROM MIRROR
> CORRESPONDENTS: "STATE FAIR WEEK, MILWAUKEE", Quote Page 14, New York.
> (Old Fulton)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> STATE FAIR WEEK, MILWAUKEE
> ...
> The New Orleans "Jass Band." with the Dancing Dales, are the double
> headliners at the Orpheum.
> [End excerpt]
>
> http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2010/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201916%20Sep-Nov%201917%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201916%20Sep-Nov%201917%20Grayscale%20-%200132.pdf
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 5:53 PM, Ben Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>> Subject:      early "jazz" in Variety
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> As Barry has informed us, the quirky fultonhistory.com site has
>> archived early issues of _Variety_ -- a top-level index shows that the
>> coverage is from 1906 to 1922:
>>
>> http://fultonhistory.com/my%20photo%20albums/All%20Newspapers/Variety/index.html
>>
>> The best way to use the archive, I've found, is by doing a Google site
>> search, constructing a query like so: <http://goo.gl/Bs5Lk>
>> (site:fultonhistory.com inurl:variety inurl:1916 jass|jazz|jaz). That
>> turns up a mention of a "jass band" in the Sept. 1, 1916 issue, in a
>> review of entertainment at McVicker's Theatre in Chicago (see first
>> cite below). According to Laurence Gushee in _Pioneers of Jazz_, this
>> would have been the Original Dixieland Jass Band (then accompanying
>> Fogarty's Dancing Revue), though their rivals the Creole Band also
>> played the same venue:
>>
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=M8Zw7lmvLvAC&pg=PT324
>>
>> As Garson noted, most page images in the archive don't have dates on
>> them, so you need to navigate back to the first page of the issue to
>> find the date. Here are a couple of antedatings:
>>
>> * jazz/jass, v. 'play jazz music' (OED3 28 June 1917)
>>
>> 1916 _Variety_ 1 Sept. 28/1 The dancing was no doubt appreciated and
>> the audience entertained with the Texas Tommy dance brought more
>> up-to-date but the real interest was centered in the coatless but
>> whiteshirted white musicians who "jassed" away at the raggedy,
>> foxtrotty numbers. The music may not spell class but it does spell
>> "jass" and what more would anyone at McVicker's want?
>>
>> p. 1: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2015/Variety/Variety%201916/Variety%201916%20-%201143.pdf
>> p. 28: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2015/Variety/Variety%201916/Variety%201916%20-%201170.pdf
>>
>> * jazzist (OED3 1921)
>>
>> 1917 _Variety_ 21 Sept. 26/1 Miss Seeley has assembled the greatest
>> aggregation of "Jazzists" in America (the Benny Fields combination
>> from Chicago's South Side).
>>
>> p. 1: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2015/Variety/Variety%201917/Variety%201917%20-%202757.pdf
>> p. 26: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2015/Variety/Variety%201917/Variety%201917%20-%202780.pdf
>>
>> --bgz
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 6:00 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>>>
>>> Thanks Barry and Jerry: There is no date on the page, but there is a
>>> strategy to access adjacent pages. Admittedly, the Old Fulton Post
>>> Card database is difficult to use. The date of the issue of Variety
>>> that contains the passage is:  June 14, 1918
>>> The date is shown on page 1 and page 3 of the issue.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 4:04 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Barry Popik sent me the message below, and I now forward it to ads-l.  Can
>>> > anyone perhaps add to it?
>>> >
>>> > ________________________________________
>>> > From: Barry Popik [bapopik at aol.com]
>>> > Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 9:04 AM
>>> > To: Cohen, Gerald Leonard
>>> > Subject: Paul Asch, leader of the original San Francisco jazz orchestra?
>>> >
>>> > FWIW, I was in the very comprehensive but I-can't sort-by-date Old
>>> > Fulton NY Post Cards database, now at over 21 millions pages. This
>>> > might be interesting for the origins of "jazz" music in San Francisco:
>>> > ...
>>> > http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
>>> > 1918 (no date on page), Variety, pg. 8, col. 2:
>>> > Paul Asch, leader of the original San Francisco "jazz orchestra,"
>>> > enlisted in the Marines last week and joined the band at Mare Island.
>>> > ...
>>> > There's not much on Paul Asch except for this, from GenealogyBank.com:
>>> > ...
>>> > Date: Tuesday, June 18, 1918
>>> > Paper: Evening News (San Jose, CA)
>>> > Volume: 168
>>> > Issue: 437
>>> > Page: Three
>>> > U. S. MARINE CORPS BAND
>>> > (...)
>>> > PAUL ASCH, Pianist
>>> > ...
>>> > Barry Popik
>>> > Austin, TX
>>
>> --
>> Ben Zimmer
>> http://benzimmer.com/
>>
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