Jazz origin hypothesis

[Dale Coye]

I've been checking the archives and thinking about the origin of jazz in
light of the new discoveries from Los Angeles posted last week.   Here's the
hypothesis  I would propose starting with Jasper.

1. Jasper in late 19th c. meaning 'guy' or 'oddball' or 'country bumpkin'
(from DARE)
2. r-less regions make the ending schwa
3. re-interpreted around the turn of the century as varying between a schwa-
and /o/-ending, reinforced by existence of 'bo' which DARE has from 1893
meaning 'buddy' and as a possible origin of "hobo"  from the same time.  So you
could say "Where you headed, bo?"     The cite for Jasbo in 1914 Illinois fits in
here. I KNEW A JASBO ONCE WHO READ THAT A CHAP GETTING PAID $5,000 DAMAGES
FOR BEING STRUCK BY AN AUTO. Also the name of a horse Miss Jazbo in 1914 (and
the horse was probably born a couple of years eariler at least).
4. Jazzbo's meaning shifts from 'strange guy, bumpkin' to the more specific
meaning of a Charlie Chaplin-type performer of low-comedy and slapstick.   It
can be positive, negative or neutral.
5. It also refers to that type of shtick.  1917 (HDAS)
6. Its meaning extends to non-performance contexts (the auto rally in the
1914-Los Ang.  Times).  I assume the use of it here means that it must have been
used in the performance sense at least by 1914 as well.
7. It is shortened in LA to "jazz" by at least one reporter referring to
slapstick in a negative way in 1917(? I misplaced this cite)  jazz comedy  (crazy
comedy)
8. It is used by a ball player to refer to a curve  ball (crazy curve) 1912
9. In early 1913 it is applied by  sports write Gleeson in San Francisco to a
team and to the music of a  band associated with that team (crazy music) as
Gerald Cohen et al. have determined and from there it spready to Chicago and
entered the national lexicon as a type of music.
10. Jasbo becomes a perjorative term only, perhaps influenced by Sambo, a
highly derogatory term for blacks. 1919 DARE

I don't know where this leaves Gleeson's claim to have gotten it from craps.

Dale Coye
The College of NJ