![cakewalks](jass_files/cake.htm) | Tom Morgan's Jazz and Blues site is the cat's meow of Jazz sites on the internet, in my opinion. |
Not only does he has extensive coverage of many jazz and blues musicians, but he has written a
book
about the history of how it all began. This article will feature
excerpts from his book as well as spotlight various pages at his
fantastic site.
OK... get ready for some Jazz Education, teachers. Let's
begin with the term, "JASS" as the title of Tom's domain and this
article. No, it's not misspelled. Originally, when jazz was played in
Chicago, Illinois, the name for this "new" style of music was called
"JASS". Later on, after it became more common, people just began
pronouncing it as Jazz. There are several versions as to how the term
"Jass" was first started. In the book, "The Guinness Book of Jazz A-Z",
this particular excerpt tells it another way.
"It is
substantially
reported that the term "jass" was first used first used in reference to
"Jazz" when during a performance by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band,
an inebriated 'retired vaudeville entertainer' leapt to his feet in
excitement and yelled out: 'Jass it up, boys!' The word "Jass", up
until then, had been a Negro word brought from the South and
fashionably
current in the Chicago underworld, with the specific connections known
only to the black man. Nobody up until then had thought to apply it to
the newly-emerging music, Jazz. It was reported that this useful
customer was hired every night
to be there and cry out 'Jass it up, boys!' and thus the band became
later known as Stein's Dixie Jass
Band. Later, at Reisenweber's in New York, it was billed as the
Original Dixieland Jasz Band,
perhaps as a result of a printer's error; then it appeared as jaz and finally jazz."
Tom Morgan's book has another version of the original use of the term, "Jass".
Clarence Williams says that he was the first person to use the term jass
on a piece of sheet music which was a couple of years prior to the appearance
of the jass band in Chicago.
So I guess, one version is as good as the next. Take your pick.Take a look at this page entitled, Jazz Roots. It is the front page to Jazz, the first thirty years.
For music teachers that are looking for some good ways to present jazz
history to your students, this will be invaluable. The wording is clear
and the musicians that he mentions in the overview, have some great
links to details about their personal lives and the influence they had
in this style of music.