Lafcadio Hearn and Jazz?

[Jonathan Lighter]

I tried to trace this reference many years ago and found nothing. I believethat Gerald Cohen gave it a try too.  It's almost certainly imaginary.

 JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Subject: Re: Lafcadio Hearn and Jazz?
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At 7:53 PM -0400 10/17/04, Sam Clements wrote:
>A challenge for researchers.
>
>I was using Newspaper archive today, searching not for antedates,
>but later stories which might hold clues to the origins of the
>musical term.
>
>10 November, 1917. An article from the Oshkosh(WI) _Daily Northwestern_
>
>>>Not long since The Northwestern printed a little poem, entitled
>>>"Jazz," and frequently the question arose, "What is Jazz?"
>>>Adelaide King, editor and publisher of The Waupun Democrat, who
>>>was among the questioners, finally decided to answer the question
>>>herself and her research makes her an authority on the Jazz
>>>question. She says: "Having got in line with Jazz orchestras and
>>>Jazzy looking bills, Waupun is up to date on that point. The word
>>>is of African origin and is variously spelled Jas, Jass, Jaz,
>>>Jazz, Jasz and Jasez. It is common on the gold coast of Africa
>>>and in the hinterland of Cape Codcastle. In his studies of the
>>>Creole patois and idiom in New Orleans, Lafcadio Hearn reported
>>>that the word 'Jaz,' meaning to speed things up, to make
>>>excitement, was common among the blacks of the south, and had been
>>>adopted by the Creoles as a term to be applied to music of a
>>>rudumentary syncopated type. In the old plantation days when the
>>>slaves were having one of their holidays and the fun languished,
>>>some west coast African would cry out, 'Jas her up,' and this
>>>would be the cue for fun, fast and furious. No doubt the witch
>>>doctors and medicine men on the Congo used the same term and those
>>>jungle 'parties,' when the tom-toms throbbed and the sturdy
>>>warriors gave their pep, and added kick, with rich brews of
>>>Gohimbin? bark--that precious concoction fo the Cameroons.
>>>Curiously enough the phrase, 'Jas her up' is a common one today in
>>>vaudeville and on the circus lot. When a vaudeville act needs
>>>ginger the cry from advisers in the wings is, 'put in jaz,'
>>>meaning, add low comedy, go to high speed and accelerate the
>>>comedy spark. 'Jasbo,' is a form of the word common in the
>>>varieties, meaning the same as 'hokum,' or low comedy, verging on
>>>vulgarity. Jazz music is the delirium tremens of syncopation. It
>>>is strict rythm, without melody. Today the jazz bands take
>>>popular tunes and rag them to death to make jazz, beats being
>>>added as often as the delicacy of the player's ear will permit.
>>>In one-two time, a third beat is interpolated. There are many
>>>half notes, or less and many long drawn, wavering tones. It is an
>>>attempt to reproduce the marvelous syncopation of the African
>>>jungle. For years jazz has ruled in the under world resorts of
>>>New Orleans. There, in those wonderful refuges of basic folk lore
>>>and primeval passion, wild men and wild women have danced to jazz
>>>for generations. Ragtime and the new dances came from there, and
>>>long after, jazz crept slowly up the Mississippi frolm resort to
>>>resort until it landed all over the United States." <<
>
>My question is--where can one find in the writings of Lafcadio Hearn
>the term 'jaz'? The author of this piece probably didn't make it
>up out of whole cloth.

I'd guess, based on the above, that it's included in vol. 2 of the
below, although obviously this version would have appeared after the
Oshkosh paper cited above. Another place the Hearn observation
appears is at
http://www.americanheritage.com/xml/2004/5/2004_5_dept_histnow.xml

Larry
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
from a website cataloguing Hearn's writings:

1924 An American Miscellany. articles and stories now first
collected by Albert Mordell. 23 cm, 1st edition, 2 vols. [BAL 7984,
Perkins]. New York. Dodd, Mead. (Verso of t.p.: Vail-Ballou Press,
Inc., Binghamton and New York.) v. 1: The cedar closet -- Giglampz --
Violent cremation -- Valentine vagaries -- The restless dead -- Some
strange experience -- A bird store reverie -- Notes on the
utilization of human remains -- The demi-monde of the antique world
-- The poisoners -- Levee life -- Dolly-an idyll of the levee --
Banjo Jim's story -- Butterfly fantasies -- Frost fancies -- Steeple
climbers -- A romantic incident at the musical club -- Some pictures
of poverty.
v. 2 : Face studies -- Progressive living -- Frankness -- Frauds -- A
Mephistophelian -- Something about success -- Nightmare and nightmare
legends -- Philosophy of imaginative art -- Subhadra -- The dead wife
-- St. Brandan's Christmas -- Bidasari -- Torn letters -- Three
dreams -- A lily in the mouth of hell -- The piper of Hamelin --
Saint Malo -- The garden of paradise -- Gustave Dor=E9 -- Dor=E9's Raven
-- The life of stars -- The destiny of solar systems -- The great "I
am" -- A Concord compromise -- The Creole patois -- Some notes on
Creole literature -- The scientific value of Creole -- A sketch of
the Creole patois -- The scenes of Cable's romances -- The last of
the New Orleans fencing masters -- The last of the voudoos -- New
Orleans superstitions -- A study of half-breed race in the West
Indies -- West Indian society of many colorings -- A winter journey
to Japan.

>
>Since Hearn died in 1904, his use of the term, however spelled,
>would be a great find, I would think.
>
>Hearn lived in N.O. from 1877-88. He was the literary editor of the
>Times Democrat in that city from 1877-81.
>
>Just saying...
>
>Sam Clements


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