Ragged but Right, pt 4 (jam)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Any chance "to jam" comes from obs. "jam," a 'party or social
gathering,' as in Longfellow?  See HDAS. The next step would be a
musicians' party. The next step would be the verb.

Problem: the "party" sense is attested mainly from New England.

JL

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt 4 (jam)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And your moment of retromythoacronymery:
>
> "I was taught in school [n.b. - ed.] that it originated as 'Jazz and Musicians."
>
> [http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8598&messages=6]
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 8:22 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt 4 (jam)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 11:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>>     As a rule most side show managers just want noise from a colored band.
>>>>> The reason for this is because they don't have a large enough band to do
>>>>> anything but jam.
>>>>>
>>>>>      "Notes from Wolfscale's Band, with Barnum and Bailey", *Indianapolis
>>>>> Freeman*, August 8, 1914
>>
>>
>>> In other words, does improvisation equal and explain "noise"?
>>
>>
>> I don't think that it needs to. It's not necessary, IMO, to interpret
>> "just wants noise" literally. As presented, I read the quote as
>> meaning that side-show managers don't care what it is or how it is
>> that the colored band is playing, as long as it's playing something in
>> some manner, and not that the managers necessarily regard the
>> improvisational playing of those musicians as nothing more than
>> "noise," sensu stricto.
>>
>> --
>> -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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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



--
"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