[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Scat" (Music)

[Rich Lowenthal]

The connection with Armstrong is from the 1926 Hot Five recording of 
"Heebie Jeebies." Supposedly Armstrong dropped the lyric sheet during 
the recording and began scatting, but many jazz writers find the story 
doubtful. In any event, scatting took place before that; Will Friedwald 
cites Gene Green's 1917 recording of "From Here to Shanghai." Jelly Roll 
Morton told Alan Lomax that he and Tony Jackson were scatting back in 
1906, but Morton's accounts tend to be self-serving and unreliable.

Rich Lowenthal


------ Original Message ------
>From "Shapiro, Fred" <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 4/25/2026 09:36:17
Subject Re: Further Antedating of "Scat" (Music)

>Actually, I see from the Wikipedia article that scat singing was around even before Armstrong.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>________________________________
>From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
>Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2026 9:27 AM
>To: American Dialect Society <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>
>Subject: Further Antedating of "Scat" (Music)
>
>scat (OED, n6, 1929)
>
>1927 New Orleans Item 25 Feb. 4/2 (Newspapers.com)  Skid-Dat-De-Dat — Fox Trot — Scat Chorus by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five.
>
>NOTE: The citations I have found for "scat" seem to indicate that scat was originated not by Cab Calloway as is widely believed, but rather by an even more famous jazz musician: Louis Armstrong.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org