Bert Kelly's I Invented Jazz

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

   Such a manuscript would be extremely interesting and valuable.  George, if you can somehow get ahold of it, that would be great. .

   Meanwhile, as is well known, Bert Kelly already staked out his claim to bringing the term "jazz" from San Francisco to Chicago in a letter he sent to _Variety_, Oct. 2, 1957, p. 64/1-2.

   Btw, we must be cautious about saying that Hickman was the first to apply the word "jazz" to music.  The transfer very possibly occurred in connection with his band, but in an interview (S.F. Examiner, Oct. 12, 1919, p. W16/4) Hickman made clear that he did not like the use of the word "jazz" in relation to music.

Gerald Cohen

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        Original message from  George Thompson, Aug. 31, 2005:
> Bert Kelly was a San Francisco musician associated with Art Hickman. It seems that Hickman was the first to apply the word Jazz to music,and that Kelly brought the word to Chicago in 1915 or so, where it was
> taken up by the Original Dixieland Jazz Bnad, which made the first recordings of a jazz band.
>
> It was reported in 1960 that Kelly had written an autobiography called I Invented Jazz, which was to be published by Vantage Press, a vanity publishing company.  You folks will recall a posting or several
> postings -- you all do remember every posting made here, don't you? -- regarding this book; they came to the conclusion that it must never have been published.
>
> It seems that the manuscript of the book was at least recently still in the hands of Kelly's son, Albert R. Kelly Jr.  It is cited in Lawrence Gushee, Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band, N. Y., &c:
> Oxford U. Pr., 2005, p. 333, fn. 21.  I have what I hope is a current email address of Prof. Gushee and will try to contact the son.
>
> GAT
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> George A. Thompson
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>