[Ads-l] Antedating of "Chops" (Technical Jazz Skills)

[Bill Mullins]

>   chops (OED, s.v. chop, n2, Additional Sense, b., 1968)
>
>   1963 Down Beat 14 Mar. 28/1 (RIPM Jazz Periodicals)
>
>   Mendes, too, showed his impressive jazz piano chops.

Note that magicians use this term with more or less the same meaning.

1984 Genii July 522/1

This trick is not for the faint of "chops" however, and a familiarity with Vernon's "Spellbound" and Ross Bertram's "Ten to One" (Magic and Methods of Ross Bertram, pp. 24-25) will facilitate learning this routine.


The article quoted above was written by Michael Close who is also an accomplished jazz pianist, and it is likely that he influenced magicians in picking up the term.

Magicians have adopted other terms from musicians:  They perform at "gigs", and do a "set" of several tricks.  Classic tricks in the repertoires of many magicians become "standards".  Magicians who get together to exchange sleights and trick will "jam".

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