_Break nasty_ = "jump salty"

Mon May 3 21:48:48 UTC 2010

But what of the lambada, "the Forbidden Dance"?

JL

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 5:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _Break nasty_ = "jump salty"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the book, Voodoo Fire in Haiti, by Richard A. Loederer, 1932, the
> "danse kalinda" is identified as pretty much the center of the voodoo
> ceremony and also states that "la meringue," possibly the same dance
> now known in Spanish as "la merengue," is the national dance of Haiti.
> Nowadays, the merengue regarded as the national dance of the Dominican
> Republic, called "Saint-Domingue" by Loederer.
>
> The only story that I've ever heard - don't remember where; it may
> even have been in Voodoo Fire - WRT the origin of the merengue is that
> a king of Haiti had a son with one leg shorter than the other and,
> hence, the son was a very awkward dancer. Better dancers, not wanting
> to piss off the king by making the kid look lame, no pun intended,
> adapted the prince's movements to their own style of dancing, thereby
> preserving his dignity and their own arses.
>
> If you're familiar with the merengue's basic steps, this story seems
> quite plausible. But that would still be the case, if the story had
> merely been pulled out of somebody's ass. AFAIK, nowadays nobody
> mentions any such Haitian dance as la merinqué or connects the
> Dominican merengue with Haiti.
>
> I wouldn't bet money that the story was true.
>
> IAC, Loederer writes:
>
>
> "The marimba band started a melody of strangely cloying and oppressive
> rhythm.
> A murmur ran around the room: _'La Merinque!_'
> _The national dance of Haiti!_
> Against a background of ponderous vibrations, the tune sobbed through
> the smoky air in a monstrous abortion of the tango. It was a strange
> dance. It was more than a dance–a ritual performance, an ovation to
> love, the ultimate love symbolized in the pairs of bodies, male and
> female, so closely entwined as to be molten into one by the fierce
> heat of their desire. They swayed over the floor, flexing this way and
> that, eyes closed, mouths open, forgetting everything in the rapture
> of their embrace and the subtle discords of the music."
>
> And WRT to the dance Kalinda:
>
> "It was the great purification. Only after a baptism of blood can the
> good spirit Damballa enter the soul. A broad-shouldered, athletic
> negro jumped up in front of me and shouted: 'Commencons! Danse
> Calinda!' ...
> A solid ring of naked, sweaty formed around the fire. They were
> dancing the Calinda! More and more performers joined in, bodies
> pressed close against one another, men and women, rubbing body to body
> in the red glow of the flames. The irregular circle of a hundred
> bodies molten into one Hydra-headed monster was carried along on
> jerking bodies and stamping feet. The drums rolled faster. The black
> throng revolved with ever-increasing rapidity. Around and around they
> went, as the ground shook under the impact of two hundred feet!"
>
>
> Whew!
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 11:22 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: _Break nasty_ = "jump salty"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Then there may well be a connection. And I shouldn't have called it "a
> Dr.
> > John song": Dr. John (Mack Rebennack) recorded a version of it on
> > "Gris-Gris" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gris-Gris), but I have no idea
> > whether he wrote it.
> >
> > I found the album in the basement, and I still don't know. The song is
> > credited as "By Dr. John Creaux", another form of his in-character stage
> > name. But "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom" is credited "By Dr. John Creaux &
> Harold
> > Battiste", while the jacket notes (=C2=A9 1968 Atlantic Recording
> Corporati=
> > on)
> > suggest that it's based on a trad. song:
> >
> > I HAVE ALSO DUG UP THE OLD DANSE KALINDA TO REMIND YOU WE HAVE NOT
> CHOPPED
> > OUT THE OLD CHANTS... [uppercase sic].
> >
> > Maybe I'll ask the Digital Tradition / Mudcat Forum, but not tonight.
> >
> > (Whoops, I see I conflated the idioms this morning, typing "jump nasty"
> > instead of "jump steady".)
> >
> > Mark Mandel
> >
> > On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 7:57 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu
> >wr=
> > ote:
> >
> >> I months or so ago I heard Louis Armstrong sing a number with the
> >> expression "Jump Study" in the refrain.  Definitely "Study", not
> "Steady"
> >> (which would make some sense) or "Sturdy"
> >>
> >> Probably dated from the later 1930s or ealy 1940s.
> >>
> >> GAT
> >>
> >> George A. Thompson
> >> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> >> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com>
> >> Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010 10:51 am
> >> Subject: Re: _Break nasty_ =3D "jump salty"
> >> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >>
> >> > Interesting. I had not heard or seen either of these idioms before.
> >> >
> >> > "Jump nasty" immediately reminded me of a Dr. John song (N.Orleans,
> >> sixties
> >> > - present) with the chorus
> >> >
> >> > Jump Sturdy, Jump Sturdy was her name.
> >> > She came out the swamp like a crazy fool.
> >> >
> >> > But I don't see any plausible connection. (The song, titled "Jump
> >> Sturdy",
> >> > is on his first LP, "*Gris-Gris"*, issued in the late sixties.)
> >> >
> >> > m a m
> >> >
> >> > On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > Now in UD, with a surprising-reasonable set of definitions, from
> 2005=
> > .
> >> > >
> >> > > Otherwise, as far as the Web is concerned, _break nasty_ occurs only
> >> > > in the environment immediately before "... habits."
> >>
> >>
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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