one for the files? -- "jasmine" etymology of "jazz"--

[Gerald Cohen]

At 8:05 PM +0000 3/11/03, Michael Quinion wrote:
>It ["jasmine" etymology of "jazz"]is mentioned in several Web pages
>on jazz, especially this one:
>http://users.netstarcomm.net/etjs/jazz_tidbits_and_other_things_by.htm, which
>quotes one Garvin Bushell [who he? -Ed] as explaining:...

    My thanks for the responses on the alleged "jasmine"-perfume
origin of "jazz." As for who Garvin Bushell (1902-1991) was, Lycos
shows he was a jazz musician who wrote a book _Jazz From the
Beginning_. I haven't seen it yet, but below my signoff is the Lycos
information.

Gerald Cohen


Jazz From The Beginning

                           Garvin Bushell (as told to Mark Tucker)
                           Da Capo, 1998 (first published in 1988)
                           Paperback. 216pp. b&w illustrations
                           £11.99


                           With an introduction by Lawrence Gushee and a
                           new preface by Stanley Crouch.

                           Jazz clarinettist, saxophonist, and bassoonist
                           Garvin Bushell (1902 - 1991) performed with many
                           of the twentieth-century's greatest jazz musicians -
                           Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway,
                           Eric Dolphy, Gil Evans, and John Coltrane - during
                           a remarkable career that spanned from 1916 to the
                           1980s. Although best known as a jazz soloist and
                           sideman, Bushell also played oboe and bassoon
                           with symphony orchestras and was a highly
                           regarded instructor of woodwinds.

                           In Jazz From the Beginning, Bushell vividly
recounts his musical experiences, featuring candid assessments of the
legends with whom he performed, as well as eye-opening recollections
of the early days of jazz
and the racism that he encountered on the road. Based on a series of
interviews conducted by jazz scholar Mark Tucker, these memoirs provide a
colourful account of Bushell's extraordinary life and career as well as an
important record of seventy years of American jazz history.

                           MARK TUCKER, professor of music at the
College of William and Mary, is the author of Duke Ellington: the
Early Years and editor of The Duke Ellington Reader. His articles and
reviews have appeared in Black Music
Research Journal, Popular Music and Jazz Times.