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

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 18 May 2005 22:26:16 -0400, Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
wrote:

>Fred Shapiro found earlier for the musical term, posted to ADS-L on May
>15, 2004.
>
>>>The Chicago Tribune unfortunately does not appear (I haven't checked
>the classified ad hits!) to have an antedating of the word "jazz."
>However, I did find the following, which I believe is the earliest usage
>yet found of "jazz" referring to a type of music:
>
>>>1915 _Chicago Daily Tribune_ 11 July E8 (ProQuest)  Blues Is Jazz and
>Jazz Is Blues ...
[snip]

Not as early as that, but here is an amusing early appearance of "jass
band" that I didn't see in the archives.  (UofC grads will particularly
enjoy this one.)

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Chicago Tribune, Nov 11, 1916, p. 13, col. 7
DRUM ROUSES EVIL IN YOUNG FOLK, SAYS DEAN.
So There'll Be Only Piano and Saxophones at Ida Noyes Hall Tea Dance Today.

There will be no drum in the orchestra at a dance given at the University
of Chicago today.
The Score club, the sophomore honorary society, is giving its opening tea
dance at Ida Noyes hall, the new girls' clubhouse, this afternoon. The
dance manager of the club in making the arrangements specified the number
of pieces that would be in the orchestra. Miss Marion Talbot, dean of
girls, did not approve of the drum. ... So the dance manager ordered a
saxophone jass band, minus the drum.

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Los Angeles Times, Nov 12, 1916, p. 10, col. 1
DRUM BANISHED AS TOO LURING
Only "Jass Band" in Future for Co-eds of Chicago
Tends to Immorality, Says Miss Talbot, the Dean.

The "tum-tidi-tumtum-ta ra ta ta" of the drum, rhythmic and snappy, was
banished today from the dance music at the Ida Noyes Hall, the new girls'
clubhouse at the University of Chicago, because of its "provocative lure,"
the moaning tones of the "jass band" guided the feet of the co-ed dancers.
Because Miss Marion Talbot, dean of the girls, did not approve of the
drum, that instrument was barred from the orchestra, and only a piano and
the saxophones, the instruments composing what is called the "jass band"
in the "black-and-tan" cafes, were allowed at the "hop" given by the Score
Club.
Miss Talbot is quoted as explaining:
"It's not in keeping with the spirit of Ida Noyes Hall. The drum arouses
all that is base in young people and tends to provoke immorality."
Leading musicians in Chicago indulged in hearty laughter at the statement
that in the drum is to be found the siren song of enticement.

[Wire story also appeared in the Washington Post, Nov 26, 1916, p. ES13]

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--Ben Zimmer