"jazz" in painting, 1915/1916

[Baker, John]

        It should also be noted that "jazz" in used in sheet music for several songs that were published in 1917.  It is possible, of course, that these were unthought of until the Original Dixieland Jazz Band came to New York, but it seems likely that more time would have been needed for the word to catch on and the songs to be written, popularized, and published.

        From Historic American Sheet Music, there is "Everybody Loves A 'Jazz' Band," words by Coleman Goetz, music by Leon Flatow.  I won't bother retyping the lyrics, since they are available at http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/dynaweb/sheetmusic/1910-1920/@Generic__BookTextView/7820;nh=1?DwebQuery=jazz+in+%3Cunittitle%3E+with+label=%22Title%22#X, but the lyrics refer to a band that was heard in New Orleans, playing a rag, with a clarinet, a cornet, a piano, and a trombone, and that makes you think of Alabama.  The front cover advertises "Emma Carus' Terrific 'Jazz' Success!"  Emma Carus was a German-born American vaudeville singer, best known for popularizing "Alexander's Ragtime Band."  The artwork has an African-American man dancing in the foreground and a generic Caucasian brass band marching in the background.

        It seems that there was also an early recording of this song.  From The Encyclopedia of Acoustic Era Recording Artists, at http://www.garlic.com/~tgracyk/fields.htm:  <<On March 15, 1917, Fields recorded "Everybody Loves a 'Jass' Band," and when this was issued in July 1917 on Diamond Disc 50439, its disc jacket stated, "Do you love a 'Jass' band? Doubtless you would if you knew what one was. You'll know all about it when you have heard this song. 'Jass' bands are all the rage this year in the 'Lobster Palaces' along Broadway.">>  The Fields referred to was Arthur Fields, born Abe Finkelstein.

        A second 1917 song is "Jazzin' the Cotton Town Blues," words by Roger Lewis, music by Harry Olsen, lyrics at http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/dynaweb/sheetmusic/1910-1920/@Generic__BookTextView/23646;nh=1?DwebQuery=jazzin+in+%3Cunittitle%3E+with+label=%22Title%22#X.  The lyrics refer to "a Jazz band in Mississippi, Keeping the darkies dippy."  The jazz band in the lyrics plays blues and includes a cornet, trombone, and clarinet.  The cover says "novelty song" and shows well-dressed African-American couples dancing to the music of an African-American band with a piano, trombone, cornet, drum, cymbal, and schoolbell.

        In an article by Catherine Parsonage, "A critical reassessment of the reception of early jazz in Britain," online at http://journals.cambridge.org/bin/bladerunner?30REQEVENT=&REQAUTH=0&500001REQSUB=&REQSTR1=S0261143003003210 (sorry about all these long URLs), there are references to three songs published in Britain in 1917 with "jazz" in their names.  One the author cites as "(Buck/Stamper 1917, 'When I Hear that Jazz Band Play' [h3996n(22)])."  The other two are both by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band:  "Ostrich Walk:  Jazz Foxtrot" and "Sensation: Jazz One-step."  So "jazz" had even made it to Britain by 1917.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of George Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 2:21 PM
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Subject: "jazz" in painting, 1915/1916



The apparent fact that Gleizes encountered the word "jazz" in NYC in late 1915 or early 1916 and associated it with music played by black musicians does not fit comfortably with what otherwise seems a plausible story, that "jazz" was a west coast word brought to Chicago by a white musician (Bert Kelly); that it was adopted there by one or several other groups comprised of white musicians; that it did not reach NYC until early 1917, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band came to the city; and that the word and the music did not become a fad until the ODJB made a hit record in the spring of 1917.
It does seem that once the fad hit, every vaudeville musical group that played novelty music started calling itself a "jazz band", and that the response in Chicago to Kelly;s group, and the ODJB, and Tom Brown's band, was pretty enthusiastic, so it may be that the fad started to spread through vaudeville before the ODJB came to NYC and before they recorded their first hit.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.