Friday, July 11, 2008

Live from Fan Fest: Jazz is a baseball term

Just spoke to a dixie land jazz band that played us a wonderful
rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on a trumpet, banjo, and
stand up bass. I must say I was impressed.

The banjo player also told me that the term "jazz" was originally a
term used to refer to the bands that used to play at baseball games.
He mentioned it started out in St. Louis when "dixie jazz" bands used
to go out to the ballpark to entertain the fans aside from the game.

If anyone could shed light on this some more, I'd love to hear it.

3 comments:

  1. "Jazz" probably didn't come from that... although its exact origins are kind of iffy.

    Most likely suspects: French "jaser"-- meaning chatter-- or certain slang terms for semen... considering where other musical slang ("rock and roll, e.g.) came from, I'd put my money on the latter.

    /word geeking

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  2. DUDE, if you told me you were going to Fan Fest, I would've gone too.

    =(

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  3. Dude...I didn't know until this morning!!

    Hmmm...very interesting. Thanks!

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