The origin of the word jazz is one of the most sought-after word origins in modern American English. The word's intrinsic interest – the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century – has resulted in considerable research and its history is well documented. ... Jazz came to mean jazz music in Chicago around 1915.
Jazz (word) The origin of the word jazz is one of the most sought-after word origins in modern American English. The word's intrinsic interest – the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century – has resulted in considerable research and its history is well documented.
The word's intrinsic interest – the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century – has resulted in considerable research and its history is well documented. "Jazz" began as a West Coast slang term around 1912. The meaning varied but it did not initially refer to music.
One of the most striking features of jazz to its earliest listeners was its speed, its sheer energy. Dating back to 1860 there had been an African-American slang term, ‘jasm’, which means ‘vim’ or ‘energy’.
Nick La Rocca, the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s cornet player and composer, claimed that he personally invented jazz – though the cornetist Buddy Bolden had a much better claim, or even the Creole artist Morton, who certainly was the first to write jazz out as sheet music and always said he’d invented it.
The date was 26 February 1917, and this novelty song, Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, was the first jazz recording.
Like ‘jas’, ‘jass’ probably has a sexual connotation, as a reference to a woman’s backside. Musician Eubie Blake said, in an interview with National Public Radio before his death in 1983: “When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z.’. It wasn't called that.
One of the most striking features of jazz to its earliest listeners was its speed, its sheer energy . Dating back to 1860 there had been an African-American slang term, ‘jasm’, which means ‘vim’ or ‘energy’. On 14 November 1916, the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper referred for the first time to “jas bands”.
It was spelled 'J-A-S-S.'.
Louis Armstrong was more charitable in his 1936 book Swing That Music, calling the Original Dixieland Jass Band “the first great jazz orchestra” and that LaRocca “had an instrumentation different from anything before, an instrumentation that made the old songs sound new.”.
As jazz historian Gary Giddins puts it, “LaRocca turned racist, and proceeded to make horrible statements about how whites invented jazz, and how they were there before the black guys, and so forth, scurrilous stuff — a cartoon cliché of the Southern bigot.”.