Art Hickman, Boyes Springs & Jazz

[George Thompson]

I've just sent off queries to several bottle-collectors, to see whether there are extant bottles from Boyes Springs, particularly with "jazz" on the label.

GAT

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

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, December 31, 2009 3:07 pm
Subject: Re: Art Hickman, Boyes Springs & Jazz -- long note
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> Oddly or interestingly, GB has a 1920 ex. of "jazz water," apparently
> from
> the South, in the sense of "perfume."
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <
> bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Art Hickman, Boyes Springs & Jazz -- long note
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > A couple of belated notes...
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:06 PM, George Thompson
> > <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > >        It's believed that Hickman was also tickled by the word "jazz",
> > and began to use it to
> > > describe the sort of vigorous, energetic dance music his bands played.
> >  The SFChronicle
> > > file doesn't help to confirm that thought, though it remains very
> likely.
> >
> > Are there any quotes from Hickman where he speaks approvingly of the
> > word "jazz" (other than the June 15, 1919 cite below)?
> >
> > > The ads in the Chronicle for the Rose Room never identify
> Hickman's band
> > as a "jazz" band.
> > > Oddly, there was a "Jazz Orchestra" playing on Powell street a few
> blocks
> > way:
> > >        TECHAU TAVERN.
> > >        San Francisco's Leading High-Class Family Cafe on the Ground
> > Floor, Corner of
> > > Eddy and Powell Streets.
> > >        Entire change of repertoire by our Show Girl Revue, but retaining
> > by popular
> > > request the singing from the electric swings in midair.
> > >        The Jazz Orchestra, under the leadership of Mr. George
> Gould, San
> > Francisco's newest
> > > and most sensational find, for the dance lovers.  Mr. Gould
> renders a
> > number of his own
> > > creations with that Jazz syncopation rarely ever heard above the Mason
> > and Dixon line.
> > >        ***
> > >        San Francisco Chronicle, August 28, 1916, p. 2, col. ?
> >
> > George Gould played piano with Hickman and Bert Kelly at the St.
> > Francis in 1914, according to Tim Gracyk:
> > http://www.gracyk.com/hickman.shtml
> >
> > >        Hickman described his band as playing jazz in 1919:
> > >        "Jazz music was always a success.  The St. Francis was brave
> > enough to install it in its
> > > principal ballroom, and the society matron found she didn't have
> to go
> > slumming in order to
> > >  hear bright and snappy melodies.  It has been refined.  ***  [A Symphony
> > orchestra] plays
> > > but twenty weeks in a year.  My orchestra entertains people for fifty-two
> > weeks.  A legitimate
> > > musician must play according to his music.  He can't improvise.  that's
> > where we jazz
> > > musicians have the advantage.  ***  When liquor goes, jazz will be
> the
> > only thing with a kick.
> > > Instead of making people weep, we will give them an enjoyable pill
> of
> > jazz."
> > >        San Francisco Chronicle, June 15, 1919.  p. S16, col. ?
> >
> > This is a very interesting find, since the quotes I've seen from
> > Hickman around this time were more disparaging of "jazz". Lawrence
> > Gushee, in _Pioneers of Jazz_, suggests that Hickman might have had
> > reason to distance himself from "jazz" after moving on from Boyes
> > Springs to high-class venues like the St. Francis.
> >
> > ---
> > _San Francisco Examiner_, Oct. 12, 1919, p. W16:4 (cited by Gracyk)
> > "Hickman does not like the use of the word 'jazz' in relation to
> > music. 'It has no association with music,' he said. 'It means
> > something effervescent. The word was born in the first training camp
> > of the San Francisco Seals at Boyes Springs, many years ago. The boys,
> > not being allowed to drink, would ask for the bubbling water of the
> > springs, calling it "jazz water." Gradually, the word was carried to
> > the ball ground, and when action was wanted, the boys would call out,
> > "come on, let's jazz it up." That is how an orchestra with life came
> > to be known as a "Jazz orchestra." But none of us like the word,'
> > added Hickman."
> > ---
> > _Talking Machine World_, July 15, 1920, p. 6 (cited by Gushee)
> > "Jazz is merely noise, a product of the honky-tonks, and has no place
> > in a refined atmosphere. We have tried to develop an orchestra that
> > charges every pulse with energy, without stooping to the skillet
> > beating, sleigh bell ringing contraptions and physical gyrations of
> a
> > padded cell."
> > ---
> >
> > --Ben Zimmer
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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