The Slang of Jazz
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8728834 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hugh Webb (corresponding author), H Brook Webb |
| Year | 1937 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 179-179 |
| Publication date | 1937-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/452424 |
| OpenAlex | W2318282712 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
IN DESCRIBING the language of jazz it is well to begin with the phenomenon of jazz music. This is a musical form which is fundamentally negroid and arose out of the negro's lack of any medium in which to express himself. His chief emotion was an overwhelming melancholy from which he gained surcease in the stomping revival meetings. Given musical instruments, but no formal instruction in their use, he developed two styles of improvised music-the blues and jazz-with which to express the two emotions which he could not paint, write, or even speak. The music became a relaxation, an art, a vocation; but there was no language to describe the music. Even if the negro had been educated, the words 'presto agitato' and 'pianissimo' did not apply. Hence the negro (and the later white) jazz musician developed an occupational slang for his own use. Today, two dyed-in-the-wool performers talking shop can be understood only by their colleagues. Most of the vocabulary of this slang arose spontaneously and is subject to a continual flux.* The origin of no term is more obscure than that of 'jazz.' To my knowledge the earliest reference to the word was in 1912 by
Art · Art history · Jazz · Linguistics · Slang · Music History and Culture · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.08 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2001 - 2021 (21) |
| Highly cited | No |