No need to be a fine music lover to recognize jazz.
His rhythmic accent and his sonorities are quite easily identified.
But the meaning and the origin of this name are more unknown.
Arrived in the United States by New Orleans, it finds its origin in the profane and religious music of the Blacks of North America.
The origin of
"jazz"
is controversial.
Several legends flutter around this word.
Le Figaro invites
you to (re)discover them.
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Erotic connotation
Jazz appeared at the end of the 19th century, in Chicago or New Orleans, without our knowing its precise date.
A sulphurous legend tells that one day, while musicians were playing in the street, a drunk would have shouted, to encourage them:
Jass it up boys!
, i.e.
“come on guys, heat up!”
, implying sexual arousal.
The groups then took the name of
Jass Band,
which the street children transformed into
Ass band
... To put an end to this dubious pun, the name became
“jazz”
.
It could also come from
jizz
, which in American slang means
"sperm"
,
"ejaculation"
.
The syncopated rhythms of this musical style, as well as its expressive sound processes would explain this erotic name.
It is also said that
"jazz"
could come from the Occitan
jaç
, meaning
"summary layer"
,
"lodging"
, then by extension
"brothel"
.
The French "chatter"
Others put forward the hypothesis that the name comes from... French!
"Jazz"
would have been formed from the verb
"jaser"
, borrowed from the French who lived in New Orleans.
The musicians would have given this verb the meaning of
"to stimulate, to cheer up"
.
Because jazz is above all a lament of slaves, who met on Sundays during their day off.
They sang and played music in the streets.
The cobblestones being not very lucrative, they went little by little to the brothels, which made a trade of it.
A halo of mystery still surrounds the exact etymology of this word, even if its erotic connotation seems confirmed.
Is it still alive in today's concerts?