"Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917)

[George Thompson]

When this article says "The word is also used to express the meaning of a mixture or a jumble, and its application in that sense to dance music", it seems to echo a definition of jazz from Eddie Edwards, clarinetist of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

Jass I think means a jumble.  We came from New Orleans by way of Chicago. . . .  To us it seems a lot of weird effects intended to make one dance with every part of one's body but the feet.  And later the dancer did a Jass dance that would have made a jelly fish wonder why it was so named.
        New York Globe & Commercial Advertiser, March 14, 1917, p. ?, col. ?  Quoted in Lawrence Gushee, Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band, N. Y., &c: Oxford U. Pr., 2005, p. 206 and p. 342, fn 68.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
Date: Monday, December 3, 2007 12:09 pm
Subject: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU


> Interesting item from America's Historical Newspapers...
>
> -----
> Morning Olympian (Olympia, Wash.), July 1, 1917, p. 1, col. 1
> Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like.
> It's a Lovely Syncopated, Care Free Feeling.
> Many guesses and opinions have been offered as to the meaning of the
> word "Jazz," since Raymond Ballard's Jazz Orchestra played at the Red
> Cross ball last Thursday evening.
> Regarding the word, its acceptance by the public and its meaning, Mr.
> Ballard said yesterday: "Jazz music is simply the natural, happy
> expression of syncopated music. The word is also used to express the
> meaning of a mixture or a jumble, and its application in that sense to
> dance music. [illegible] the ability of the musicians to [illegible]
> mix it up [illegible] and all kinds of liberties with it, yet at the
> same time to maintain a perfect rhythm and perfect harmony.
> "'Jazz' musicians absolutely must feel the spirit of it and play
> because they like to play, else they cease to be 'Jazz' musicians, and
> paradoxical as it may seem, they must possess musical talent and
> ability.
> "In the south when a darky meets another darky and says 'How's you
> feelin' this mornin' Rastus?' and Rastus replies: 'I's feelin' mighty
> jazz' he means that he's very happy. And that's about all there is to
> 'Jazz,' but it's a whole lot!"
> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org