Ruminations on the chronology of "jazz" -- (was: article on early jazz recordings)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

> I'm preparing draft #3 of my compiled treatment on the origin of "jazz" (with due credit given of course)--slated to appear next fall in Comments on Etymology--and am therefore grateful for all such leads/references as provided below by Bill Mullins.  The use of the term "jazz" in 1913 San Francisco baseball columns (prior to its reference to music!)  is already well established (and yes, with a few  baseball attestations in April 1912--although the jury is still out as to their significance). --- Aside to Tim Gracyk: the name of the 1913 sportswriter is "Scoop" Gleeson, and he used the term repeatedly.
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>    As for the music use of  the term "jazz," it was in full force in 1917.
> Tim Gracyk takes it back a bit further,  to 1916, saying: "The earliest recorded song to refer to jazz is 'That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland,' copyrighted November 8, 1916. Meanwhile, Franz Hoffmann's _Jazz Advertised in the Negropress, vol. 4: the Chicago Defender 1910-1934_ (my thanks to NYU librarian George Thompson for drawing Hommann's work to my attention) reproduces (p. 8) an advertisement from Nov. 4, 1916 which includes the words '"Jaz" Singers.' That's the earliest I find the term "jazz" (or its spelling variants) in Hoffmann's compilation for either Chicago (vol. 4) or New York/Baltimore (vols. 1-3).
>    Also, Norm Cohen (no relation) sent me a copy of a Jan. 9, 1917 letter whch mentions "I might add that there is no Jass Band here in New York, and it looks as if there will be quite a big demand for it." I therefore need to check  Gunther Schuller's 1968 _Early Jazz:..._ p. 250, which reportedly (in Irving Lewis Allen's  _The City in Slang_. p. 71) says: "In 1915 jazz was introduced to New Yorkers in a vaudeville theater by Freddie Keppard's Creole Band, but few took notice."  If  the term "jazz" (however spelled)  is attested in NYC in 1915, this would be a remarkably early musical attestation (a year a long time  in this context).
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>    This all fits into the overall picture of trying to get as clear a picture as possible of the transfer of the term "jazz" from San Francisco baseball to music and then its spread as a music term.
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> Gerald Cohen
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> ----------
> From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of Mullins, Bill
> Reply To:     American Dialect Society
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> Subject:           article on early jazz recordings
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>  http://www.garlic.com/~tgracyk/jasband.htm
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