Query: Earliest attestation of "Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band"

[Garson O'Toole]

The name Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band is mentioned in ProQuest in the
Chicago Tribune in 1938.

A LINE O' TYPE OR TWO
Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963) [Chicago, Ill] 17 Aug 1938: 10.

 But the author of the article is retelling a story that he credits as
follows: "Herbert Asbury tells a story that sounds plausible, and is
supported by living witnesses, in his book of New Orleans lore called
"The French Quarter.""

Jonathan Lighter mentions a book that may be the same book under another name:
Herbert Asbury's _The Latin Quarter_ (1936) alleges the following:

Hence, this citation is quite late but may be useful for tracking the
propagation of the Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band story.


On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Query: Earliest attestation of "Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 1:34 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Gerald Cohen <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
>>> >> David Gold's 2009 book Studies in Etymology and Etiology (non-comittally)
>>> >> reproduces a 1989 item which derives the term "jazz" from a New Orleans
>>> >> "Razzy Dazzy Jazzy Band."
>>
>> No trace of a "razzy dazzy jazzy" anything in NewspaperArchive, ProQuest
>> Historical Newspapers, Gale 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, the Old Fulton NY
>> Post Cards site, or the L of C Chronicling America site.
>>
>> Likewise for "razzy jazzy dazzy," etc.
>>
>> Herbert Asbury's _The Latin Quarter_ (1936) alleges the following:
>
> I've also looked into this to no avail. Daniel Hardie's _Exploring
> Early Jazz_ has a cite from a 1919 letter to the New York Dramatic
> Mirror talking about the Razzy Dazzy *Spasm* Band, of which the Razzy
> Dazzy Jazzy Band was supposedly an offshoot, but even the letter
> writer wasn't sure if that had anything to do with the origin of the
> word "jazz".
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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