mouldy fig

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

   I don't think the original reference was merely to people who like to play old-time jazz but rather to those who were insisting that ONLY the old-time jazz (New Orleans, ca. 1915) counted for anything. Anything else allegedly represented a decline of jazz, a going-to-hell in a handbasket of the one, true, genuine style of jazz.

   No self-respecting modernist could accept that put-down lying down.
So out came the counter-put-down: "mouldy fig."  "Mouldy" here is self-explanatory. As for "Why fig?" I guess I'd respond "Why not?"

Gerald Cohen
P.S. HDAS has good examples of the term.

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Original message from Page Stephens:
> Does anyone out there know where mouldy fig came from as a term of derogation for people who like to play old time jazz came from?
> Why mouldy and why fig?
        <snip>

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