"jazz" (1912)--some thoughts

[Gerald Cohen]

    Today I received an e-mail from an L.A. Times reporter asking to
interview me concerning the 1912 attestation of "jazz" in his
newspaper; he'd like to know what I think about it for the history of
the term.

    I'll speak to him in the next day or so, and meanwhile, here are
some thoughts:

1) We don't yet know whether Ben Henderson's 1912 use of the term was
a one-shot deal or whether he repeated the term throughout at least
part of the season. And we don't yet know who, if anyone, picked up
on the term. Checking the Portland newspapers (currently underway)
should clarify these points.

2) I suspect that Henderson's "Jazz ball" represented a bit of humor,
rather than an actual pitch such as a fork ball or spitter. The March
6, 1913 (p.16/2) San Francisco Bulletin mentions "some veteran or
recruit [=rookie] inventing a double shoot [=breaking pitch which
evidently breaks in two different directions] or a Tango twist or a
curve that broke seven ways at the same time."
Henderson's "jazz ball" evidently is cut from the same cloth as these
humorous non-existent pitches. If the "Jazz ball" really was a new
type of breaking ball,
the pitch would have become the topic of considerable discussion.

3) On April 5, 1913 the San Francisco Bulletin (p.28/5-6) carried an
article titled "In Praise of "Jazz," a Futurist Word Which Has Just
Joined the Language." Note the last six words: "...Which Has Just
Joined the Language."
The term "jazz" was first used in the San Francisco Bulletin  on
March 3, 1913 and then repeated frequently. That is what the April 5,
1913 article is referring to.  The 1912 attestation of the term in
the L.A. Times was evidently unknown to the S.F. Bulletin writer(s).

4) In 1938 E.T. "Scoop" Gleeson--initiator of "jazz" in the baseball
columns of the S.F. Bulletin--wrote an article about how he acquired
and started using the term ("I Remember the Birth of Jazz", in his
column "San Francisco on Parade", The Call-Bulletin (S.F. newspaper)
Sept. 3, 1938, p. 3/1). Gleeson tells how he acquired the term from
sports editor William "Spike" Slattery, who in turn had heard it from
players in a crap game ("Come on, the old jazz"). No mention at all
is made of hearing it from reference to a "jazz ball" in Portland or
Los Angeles.  None.

5) It is especially important that the other information in Gleeson's
1938 article jibes in all main details with what we know from the
1913 newspapers.
Gleeson's credibility is therefore established, and there seems to be
no reason to doubt his account of how he acquired the term "jazz."

6) Btw, here is the relevant part of Gleeson's 1938 article:
"Similarly the very word 'jazz' itself, came into general usage at
the same time.  We were all seated around the dinner table at Boyes
[Springs; the Seals spring-training camp] one evening and William
("Spike") Slattery,  then sports editor of The Call, spoke about
something being the "jazz," or the old "gin-iker" fizz."
        "Spike had picked up the expression in a crap game.
        "Whenever one of the players rolled the dice he would shout,
'Come on, the old jazz."
        "For the next week [G. Cohen: actually longer] we gave 'jazz'
a great play in all our stories."

7) So, here is my best judgment, pending the discovery of information
to the contrary: The discovery of 1912 "jazz" is not the source of
"jazz" as used by Scoop Gleeson in his 1913 articles. It is therefore
incorrect to think of "jazz" being traced back in a straight line to
1912 and Los Angeles. The term goes back in a straight line to March
3, 1913 in the S.F. Bulletin, thence to a good-luck incantation in a
crap game.  At this point we don't have clear evidence about where
the crap players got the term.

     If anyone has alternative interpretations, I'd be happy to
forward them to the reporter for his consideration. Also, via a Bcc.
I'm sending him a copy of this e-mail.

Gerald Cohen
University of Missouri-Rolla

P.S. Many researchers have contributed to an understanding of the
term "jazz," and in my writings I give due credit for these
contributions.  This project is very much a team effort.