JAZZ NOTES

TRYING TO DEFINE JAZZ

Before looking at the origins of jazz, the music,

we will consider the word itself. 

It's derivation is obscure. Some say it came from

the French word jaser, meaning to gossip or

chatter, or jower, to play, or jeux games.

Some say it was first applied to the music in 1915,

rendered jass, where it was previously used as a West Coast slang term for the sex act.

The word was also said to have first appeared in print in the Chicago Herald in 1916, and was also spelled jass. By the next year it had changed to jasz, and then jazz.

Jelly Roll Morton,*** who was an early jazz pianist, said he invented the word in 1902, but he also claimed to have invented jazz itself, which still doesn't explain how he chose the word, or why it took so long to catch on.

The date of the word's first attachment to the music will probably never be known, but just as the word blues has many meanings, then so does the word jazz, and like other Black musical idioms: field hollers, spirituals, cakewalk, ragtime, and others, they are all closely related.

Jazz is a term that encompasses a loose collection of many styles of music that have developed in many diverse ways. By learning the history of jazz you will learn principles of stylistic evolution that apply to all art forms, not just jazz.

Studying jazz can lead you to related styles that you will enjoy too. The better you become at listening to jazz, the more you will derive from listening to all forms of music.

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***Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was an early jazz pianist, and is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger.