1912 "jazz (ball)"--mention of it seems isolated

[Baker, John]

        While it does not appear, based on available evidence to date, that Henderson had a significant role in the propagation of "jazz," it remains significant that a Portland baseball player was using the term a year before Scoop Gleeson first did so.  This suggests that "jazz" was geographically more widespread than we might otherwise have supposed.  It may also be significant that this early use, like Gleeson's, came from baseball, and it makes less likely the possibility of a derivation from craps (which, other than Gleeson's own account, never had much going for it).

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Gerald Cohen [mailto:gcohen at UMR.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 10:38 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: 1912 "jazz (ball)"--mention of it seems isolated


   This is a very brief and preliminary readout on "jazz ball" as
spoken by Portland Beavers/Ducks pitcher Benny Henderson, mentioned
in the LA Times, April 2, 1912 (discovered recently by Bobst
Librarian (NYU) George Thompson):

[snip]

    When the Portland newspaper is eventually digitized, we'll know
for sure whether Henderson's "jazz ball" is ever mentioned there. For
now, though, it seems clear: Henderson's April 2, 1912 mention of
"jazz ball" to an LA Times reporter found no resonance in the
Portland newspaper _Oregon Daily Journal_ in the following weeks. So
there seems to be no justification at all to assume that _San
Francisco Bulletin_ baseball reporter Scoop Gleeson acquired "jazz"
from Henderson's 4/2/1912 use of the term. The starting point for
"jazz" therefore seems to remain early March 1913, _San Francisco
Bulletin_, where Gleeson
introduced the term and used it repeatedly.

Gerald Cohen