The "soul patch"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Sun, Jun 19, 2005 at 02:19:34AM -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 00:57:05 -0500, Mullins, Bill
> <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
>
> >The Question Behind Those Beards
> >By HERBERT MITGANG
> >New York Times (1857-Current file); Apr 27, 1958;  pg. SM42
> >"Stand in front of a building on Broadway frequented by musicians; the
> >bopster and hipster goatees on display are an every-day mark of the cool
> >jazz man."
>
> Well, without some names or faces, we don't know if "goatee" referred to
> the classic chin whiskers of Thelonious Monk, the soul patch of Dizzy
> Gillespie, or both.
>
> I've come across both "jazz dab" and "jazz dot" to describe Dizzy's tuft,
> but I have yet to find any contemporaneous usage.

Here's a differently named, contemporaneous description, courtesy HDAS:

1956 E. Hunter _Second Ending_ 342: Dizzy Gillespie...wears a
little beard here under his lip, a sort of a goatee, a little
triangular thing. We call it a "Dizzy kick" in the trade.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED