"professor" = piano-player

[George Thompson]

I'm not keeping up with the state of the revision of the OED: is this a new
entry?  In any case, a 30 year antedating.

     *musical party.  sixth avenue tavern*.  *Near the corner of Greenwich
Lane and Sixth Avenue*.  ***  A Professor will preside at the Piano
Forte.  Admittance
12½ cents, with a refreshment ticket.
     Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, December 14, 1830, p. 2, col. 7
5 *c.* *U.S.* *colloq.* A piano player in a saloon, brothel, dance hall,
etc. Also: an orchestra leader. Now *hist.*
1860    ‘N. Buntline’
*Elfrida<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/152066?rskey=FE71X7&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
* lxxiv. 101/1   At one end of the room, elevated upon a low platform, was
the ‘music’—consisting of the ill-tuned, or rather *untuned* piano
aforementioned, and the ‘professor’, a very seedy-looking gentleman.
1895    *N.Y. Times<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/152066?rskey=FE71X7&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
* 21 Jan. 7/5   The perfesser only went out for a drink. He feels better
now, and asks permission to play the pianner for an hour.
1914    *Chicago Daily
Tribune<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/152066?rskey=FE71X7&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
* 19 July viii. 8/1,   I will now address myself to the professor orchestra
leader. I want, sir, a waltz, well done.

Years ago, I heard an elderly Jazz musician interviewed on radio -- name
forgotten.  He had an appointment as artist-in-residence at the music dept.
of a major university, a gig that he very much enjoyed, especially to see so
many young people interested in the music, and som of them very talented.
 He was happy to think that jazz would be played and enjoyed for decades to
come.  ONe thing troubled him, though.  The students were eager to talk to
him after class, and they greeted him on campus, but they always addressed
him as "Professor" -- now, when he was a young man, a professor was a man
who played piano in a whore house, and so, to him, it was a term of
disrepute.

GAT

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

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