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

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 18 May 2005 23:09:08 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>Chicago Tribune, Nov 11, 1916, p. 13, col. 7
[...]
>So the dance manager ordered a saxophone jass band, minus the drum.
>
>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.
[...]

My bad-- George Thompson already came across the LA Times article:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0308A&L=ads-l&P=7842

And other cites for "jass band" from Sep/Oct 1916 have been discussed:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0312C&L=ads-l&P=R3757
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0404C&L=ads-l&P=R4153

Taking things back a little earlier, it looks like "jass band" was already
commonly used in Chicago in the summer of 1916:

-----
Chicago Tribune, Jun 25, 1916, p. VIII10/1
If the Jass band will kindly oblige, thousands of motorists will rise and
sing: "What do you want the rest of June? Days of sunshine, we want you."
-----
Chicago Tribune, Jul 12, 1916, p. 15/4
When he came to early Sunday morning he was sitting in the Vernon cafe at
436 East Thirty-first street, and the jass band, it seemed, was driving
its syncopated notes clean through his splitting head.
-----
Chicago Tribune, Aug 6, 1916, p. V6/1
So sang the men of the First regiment down at the armory the day preceding
the night we pulled out of Chicago. I didn't know the words so very well
then and my surroundings were all so strange I didn't do much of the
singing. But I know the words now; I have heard our "jass band" play the
air often enough.
-----

By the end of '16, "jass" had even hit Sheboygan!

-----
Sheboygan Press (Wisc.), Dec 27, 1916, p. 5/4
The dance-loving people of Sheboygan will be given one of the big (parties
of the season Friday night in the Eagles hall when the first annual
dancing party of the Sheboygan High School Alumni Association will be
held. Manager Arthur Kuhnert of the Symphony orchestra, announced
yesterday to the president of the association that five or six new Jass
dance pieces, the music that has taken all the large cities by storm, will
be introduced at tne alumni party and that London Taps and other latest
hits wouid also be featured.
-----
Sheboygan Press (Wisc.), Dec 30, 1916, p. 6 [advt.]
Dreamland, Monday Jan. 1st, '17. Big New Year's Party. Arthur Kuhnert's
Symphony featuring Jass Music. The Music with the Pop.
-----


--Ben Zimmer