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“Finding Trends in Jazz Terminology”

Author: Olivia Herschel

5/6/2019

“He is a ‘moldy fig’ and he'll never dig the new sounds”

Today, if someone described their taste in music by identifying themselves as a “moldy fig” one’s reaction would be that of confusion, right? Well, during the Bop era, fans and players of earlier New Orleans jazz were commonly described using this term. So much of Jazz is intertwined in language, and so much of that language also has to do with coded language around race and culture. Beginning in the 1920s and ‘30s, the Jazz Age effected every aspect of life it touched. Its cultural repercussions could be felt through the prohibition era, fashion, art, women’s rights, African American’s fight for equality etc. The Jazz Age brought African American culture to the white middle class and that introduction, blending, and apprehension can be analyzed through the era’s terminology usage. Using TIME Magazine Corpus, I look at how jazz terminology has changed over time. I explore the trends and their use by using collocates and frequency as a way to explore relationships between terms in this publication. Lastly, I analyze and make conclusions through jazz terminology to shed light on the evolution of culture, language, music, and people.

How the Project Began

This article found its birth in my undergraduate final paper for a class on African

History. In my paper, entitled “Evolvement of African Slave Spirituals into Modern Day Songs,” I

argue that the Jazz Age’s evolution can be seen through time by looking at its progression through the

eras of bop, ragtime, blues, and jazz-rock fusion in the late twentieth century. The vast array of

African-American music in the 1900s incorporated the new technology of the century, new

instruments, and perfected lyrics. Likewise, artists began to publicly take political and humanitarian

stances through their music. From ragtime to jazz rock fusion, the politics and fight for rights

remained apparent through the twentieth century as well as into the twenty-first century. As R&B and

urban music incased the 1990s, the beginning of the twenty-first century led to the hip-hop

generation. Hip hop music, commonly referred to as rap music, is a genre developed in the “United

States by inner-city African Americans which consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly

accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.” This new form of music was a

more aggressive and explicit form of expression than the music of the twentieth century. However,

like the early 1900s, musicians took to music to express their emotions about race, politics, and

religion. (“Evolvement of African Slave Spirituals into Modern Day Songs,” 2017)

As I use my previous paper as a base, I use “The History of Walking and the Digital Turn:

Stride and Lounge in London, 1808–1851” by Joanna Guldi as a model for my research. Not until

recently have scholars had accessibility to large electronic databases. These databases provide the

opportunity to examine cultural questions over decades at a time. However, Guldi argues that surveys

of changing word patterns illustrate the “changing popularity of terms”, but the results should

nevertheless be questioned. Therefore, I will use her inquiries into the pitfalls of word searching to

guide my research. These pitfalls include:

1. The constraints of historiographical interventions based upon scholars’ queries are suspect- I.E. academic librarians collection practices have historically favored the voices of the privileged

2. The chronology of first appearances is notoriously untrustworthy

3. Technology (of searching) is unreliable

4. False positives- watch out for terms that are notorious for changing meanings

(Guldi, Joanna. "The History of Walking and the Digital Turn: Stride and Lounge in London, 1808–1851." The Journal of Modern History, (March 2012): 116-144)

Thus, this article does not seek to uncover ground-breaking moments in jazz history. If one is

interested in the basics of jazz history, Lee B. Brown’s article provides various arguments regarding

jazz’s evolution1. Rather, this article depicts the evolution and history of jazz-related terminology

through the published articles in TIME Magazine.

Historiography of Jazz Terminology

It was imperative to ground my research in the historiography of jazz terminology. Thus,

three scholarly articles put my work into context: “Postmodernist Jazz Theory: Afrocentrism, Old and

New” by Lee B. Brown, ""What Is Hip?" and Other Inquiries in Jazz Slang Lexicography" by Rick

McRae, and "Re-Masculating Jazz: Ornette Coleman, "Lonely Woman," and the New York Jazz

Scene in the Late 1950s" by David Ake. These articles depict the depth of jazz terminology, as well

as its cultural meanings, changes through time, and effects in had on its listeners.

Brief History of Jazz Music

Originating on the grounds of the mother continent, black music was a social, political,

and theological reflection of the lives people endured as captured slaves. Africans suffered the forced

migration from their homeland to the New World, involuntary conversion to Christianity, and were

literally worked to death as well as countless other inconceivable factors. James H. Cone summarized

the importance of their music impeccably, “black music is unity”. In my previous work, I state that

the “depths of their pain can be found in the lyrics, the sorrow from the inhumanity can be found in

the spirituality, and the hope and courage of liberation can be found in the instruments and music” 2.

The power of the African slave spirituals and songs have illuminated resistance and the struggle for

freedom for centuries and has kept evolving into songs full of despair and regret, mortality and

struggle in modern culture.

1 Brown, Lee B. “Postmodernist Jazz Theory: Afrocentrism, Old and New.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (1999): 235-246.

2 Herschel, Olivia. “Evolvement of African Slave Spirituals into Modern Day Songs.” (2017)

As I point out in my previous work, beginning in the 1500s, verbal art of the griot,

whether it was chanted or sung, an epic or a song of praise, was done so without many instruments.

Africans focused on the lyrics and the meaning behind the words, rather than the music aspect. Slaves

would use humor in ballads to articulate dreams that would not come true, communicate their fears of

white brutality and inhumanity, praise their ancestors and talk to the gods, and they would tell tales

and epics in the form of poetic verbal art. These spirituals and songs are a direct illustration of

African slave culture that show various aspects of their community and experiences.

Fast-forward to the mid-1900s, artists began to publicly take political and humanitarian

stances by recording their music. Billie Holiday, jazz singer and songwriter, protested American

racism and maltreatment in her recording of “Strange Fruit” (1939), written by Abel Meeropol. The

lyrics depict the horrid treatment of blacks in the twentieth century, specifically referring to murder

by lynching.3

“Southern trees bear strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh” 4

This haunting poem, turned jazz recording, shows the idle attempt to give all Americans,

no matter their race or ethnicity, an equal chance at life through the lyrics. The hope and prosperity

3 Herschel, Olivia. “Evolvement of African Slave Spirituals into Modern Day Songs.” (2017)

4 Meeropol, Abel. “Strange Fruit” (Billie Holiday). Proper Records. (1939)

seen in ragtime is completely diminished by the lyrics and agony of the blues. Although not as

obvious, there had been little to no progress in equality since the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Blacks in America had a comparable amount of rights and respect in the 1900s as they did in Africa

as early as the 1500s, +/- 400 years earlier.

In jazz’s historiography, most of the recent work has emphasized matters of race,

regarding the complex history of racial interaction in this country. Thus, for both African Americans

and whites, jazz has played a crucial role in representing "blackness." Ake points out that musicians

such as Charlie Parker, Nat "King" Cole, Miles Davis, Archie Shepp, and Wynton Marsalis have

represented the evolving-oftentimes conflicting- “hopes, fears, dangers, joys, and frustrations of being

black in America”.

Lexicography

Likewise, in ""What Is Hip?" and Other Inquiries in Jazz Slang Lexicography," McRae

argues the connection between music and language “manifests itself in the jazz context”5. Thus,

communication is a distinguishable factor to jazz music. Jazz musicians depend on

intercommunication to achieve and maintain a sense of spontaneity and encourage each other vocally,

or through their instruments to attain higher levels of performance. Thus, the jam session exists as the

central medium for communicating in a common musical language.

As jazz itself evolved from the experience of African Americans, so did the idiom that

jazz musicians spoke rise from what is called “jive language”. “Jive language” is commonly regarded

as “Negro-slang from Harlem and the argots of drug addicts and criminals, with occasional additions

from the Broadway gossip columns and the high school campus”6. Therefore, the linking of jazz and

5 McRae, Rick. ""What Is Hip?" and Other Inquiries in Jazz Slang Lexicography." Notes 57, no. 3 (2001): 574-84.


the underworld is not uncommon. Many musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and Mezz Mezzrow,

recalled pimps, gamblers, gangsters, and prostitutes congregated among musicians playing in the

hangouts where they plied their trades.7

In his article, McRae identified many works of jazz lexigraphy. I have provided the most

crucial works to this study in a list-like format below:

Dictionary of American Slang, Stewart Berg Flexner

The Slanguage of Swing: Terms the 'Cats' Use, Carl Cons,

Down Beat's Yearbook of Swing, Carl Cons

Vanity Fair. Hot Jazz Jargon, E. J. Nichols and W. L. Werner

Glossary of swing terms, Louis Armstrong's

The Slang of Jazz, H. Brook Webb's

Hepsters Dictionary, Cab Calloway

Hepcats Jive Talk Dictionary, Lou Shelly

Original Handbook of Harlem Jive, Dan Burley

A Jazz Lexicon, Robert S. Gold

Concise Dictionary of Slang, Eric Partridge

Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Jonathan Lighter's

Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American, Clarence Major's

By the mid-1940s, bebop musicians and their audiences (the majority of whom were

black) expressed a newly assertive stance through dress, language, posture, and music. Ake states that

“early boppers developed their own ‘mystery’ language as a means of distancing themselves from


‘unhip’ outsiders.”8 Ake proceeds to explain that at its hippest, such a common language became a

closed “hermeneutic that had the undeniable effect of alienating the riff-raff and expressing a sense of

felt isolation, all the while affirming a collective purpose-even at the expense of other musicians."9

But by the 1950s and 1960s, jazz slang gradually faded. Some elements of jazz slang

were incorporated into youth culture, the so-called “beatniks and hippies”. McRae argues that the

presence of such “lingo in the language of jazz musicians declined, as jazz became more

institutionalized, and rock and other popular music genres superseded jazz in mass popularity.”10

Thus, spoken slang varied widely among circles defined by race, gender, social class, and

geographical region.

Theory

The last article I ground my research in provides a series of jazz theories.

“Postmodernist Jazz Theory: Afrocentrism, Old and New” by Lee B. Brown identifies and analyzes

the conflicting theories, including that of the traditionalists, primitivists, purists, and revivalists within

the history jazz. Some of these theories argue that the authentic sound in jazz is the European one,

rather than the African intrusion vs. critical theorists, which say that jazz is subversive and has a

distinctive voice of African resistance. More conflicting theories can be viewed in the argument

between the "moldy fig" traditionalists and the bebop modernists vs. Afrocentric essentialism. Yet,

Brown states, “jazz is bound to be illuminated by the study of its relationship to speech, it is not

8 Ake, David. "Re-Masculating Jazz: Ornette Coleman, "Lonely Woman," and the New York Jazz Scene in the Late 1950s." American Music 16, no. 1 (1998): 25-44.

9 Ake, David. "Re-Masculating Jazz: Ornette Coleman, "Lonely Woman," and the New York Jazz Scene in the Late 1950s." American Music 16, no. 1 (1998): 25-44.


simply a code for some kind of linguistic message.”11 These conflicting theories recognize the various

arguments regarding the evolution and meaning of jazz terminology.

Time Magazine Corpus

By using the TIME Magazine Corpus, I will identify and explore key trends in word

usage, meanings, and changes in Jazz terminology. This investigation allows me to approach digital

media and content from the perspective of a historian. Thus, I will connect and converge the digital

age with history.

As the website states, TIME Magazine Corpus is based on 100 million words of text in

about 275,000 articles from TIME magazine from 1923-2006. Thus, it serves as a great resource to

examine changes in American English. In my investigation I will use two of the sites features,

collocates and frequency:

Collocates: Allows the user to see what words occur near other words. This provides

great insight into meaning and usage. Additionally, the user can choose the "span"

(number of words to the left and the right) for the collocates. For this project, I

customized “span” to 3.

Frequency: The rank-ordered list of words or phrases in the results set. These columns

show the frequency of the word or phrase in each decade from the 1920s-2000s. This

shows the total number of hits for all decades (whether selected or not). For this project,

the frequency graphs are set to view vertically.

(Davies, Mark. “TIME Magazine Corpus: 100 million words, 1920s-2000s.” Available

online at https://corpus.byu.edu/time/.(2007-))11 Brown, Lee B. “Postmodernist Jazz Theory: Afrocentrism, Old and New.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (1999): 235-246.

Strategies for Text Analysis

In order to analyze the research, I needed to first identify my data. I did this by

identifying the highest and lowest decade that the term frequented in TIME Magazine

publications. Next, I identify the two most popular collocates. I then took these results and

evaluated the individual articles in which they came from. By using their context, I determined

whether they relate to the jazz era and/or jazz terminology or have been referenced in regard to

other subjects. After doing this, I compared the results in each category.

Research & Analysis

To begin my investigation, I first had to choose the words I wanted to study. The words that I

chose, at random, came from McRae’s list of jazz dictionaries and glossaries. They were selected in

attempt to conduct a well-rounded study with terminology taken from different genres, eras, and

cultural themes of jazz culture. After choosing the words, I had to organize them in a manner that

would make sense to both the modern-eye and the concurrent eye of the TIME Magazine writer. This

process resulted in individual categories: Musicians, Instruments, Elements of Music, Genre, Drug

Lingo, and Phrases.

Fig. 1: List of terms chosen from McRae’s article. Once run through the TIME Magazine Corpus, I

highlighted the terms according to their results: green- no matching records, blue- not in the most

popular collocates, pink- documented

Musicians Instruments “Elements of Music”

Genre Dance Lingo Drug Lingo Phrases

Albert Ayler Trombone So what chord Bebop Jitterbug Vipers Dead soldier

Charlie Parker Trumpet Lick Bop Swing Weed hounds Giggle water

John Coltrane Slide guitar Jam Session Blues Jive Tea Man House feathers

Benny Goodman

Bottleneck guitar Improvisation Fusion Boogie Woogie Muggles Copacetic

Bessie Smith Kazoo Rhythm Ensemble Charleston Heroin Fuzzy

Billie Holiday Dog house Riff Ragtime Lindy Hop Razz

Bing Crosby Moth box Tempo Scatt Cakewalk Zozzled

Bix Beiderbecke Wood pile Barrelhouse Quartet Black Bottom Nerts

Buster Bailey Xylophone Clam/ clambake R&B Moldy fig

Cabell Calloway Blackstick Composer Big Band Young cats

Charlie Parker Godbox Balloon lungs

Chet Baker Pretzel Staccato spitter

Count Basie Saxophone satchel mouth

Dave Brubeck Clarinet

Dizzy Gillespie Base

Don Cherry Flute

Duke Ellington Piano

Ella Fitzgerald Violin

Frank Sinatra Snare drum

George Baquet Cymbals

Herbie Hancock Lute

Jelly Roll Morton

Jimmy Rowles

John Coltrane

Johnny Dodds

King Oliver

Lenny Tristano

Louis Armstrong

Miles Davis

Nat “King” Cole

Ornette Colman

Sonny Rollins

Thelonious Monk

Wynton Marsalis

To acquaint readers with the TIME Magazine Corpus layout, I will document the first search I

conducted: Jazz Band

Fig 2: “Jazz Band” collocates, set to the “span” of 3. Here, one can view the first 18 collocates with the highest frequency rate

Fig 3: After clicking on the first collocate, Dixieland, one can view the date, title, and source of the collocate

Fig 4: Frequency, Vertical Chart

Analysis: What do these charts tell us about the history of the term “jazz band”?

According to Figure 2, “jazz band” was most popularly used among the context of

Elements of Music and genre. “Dixieland”, “scat singing”, “serenaded”, and “blues” all iterate

that “jazz band” was being used to describe a genre of music. As this can be presumed, the

second most popular collocate is more telling of the era- “jazz band” was commonly used

among the context of race and ethnicity in TIME Magazine. This can be seen through the high

frequency of terms such as “Negro”, “Creole”, and “Black”. These three terms were most

popularly used to describe the type of jazz band, i.e. a negro jazz band and a creole jazz band.

Thus, terms indicating ethnicity were being used as genre terminology. In comparison to

modern norms, describing a musical group by their ethnicity is unnecessary. However, in the

jazz era it was the norm to state an individual’s skin color or ethnicity when speaking of them.

According to Figure 4, “jazz band” frequented the pages of TIME Magazine most during

the 1940s and 1950s. As 1935 marked the beginning of the Swing Era, the Depression was

sweeping its way through the United States. Subsequently, as the ‘40s came around, a new type

of jazz emerged, Bebop. Bebop contradicted the somber tones of American culture as the

United States entered the second world war. By the ‘50s, the effects of the war were still being

felt as the television was overtaking the radio as the most important medium for entertainment.

By acknowledging the era’s context, “jazz band” was being talked about more as it was

increasingly publicized to the public. Jazz benefited from the medium of television as musicians

were featured on a variety of programs and specials. In the late ‘50s, Nat “King” Cole briefly

had his own weekly program on television. Likewise, there were specials, as well as live jazz

programs, featuring top jazz performers such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis,

and many others. Thus, it is no surprise that journalists and publications, such as TIME

Magazine, began talking more about jazz bands as they were becoming more common in

average American culture.

Complete Research & Analysis

Fig 5: Musicians

Term Most Pop Coll. 2nd Most Pop Coll. Most Pop Decade

2nd Most Pop Decade

Jazz Band Dixieland Orleans 1940s 1950s

Dizzy (Gillespie) Dean Gillespie 1960s 1950s

(Dave) Brubeck Dave Pianist 1950/60s 1970s

(Duke) Ellington Duke Armstrong 1990s 1960s

Benny (Goodman) Jack Goodman 1940s 1950s

Analysis: Fig.5 conveys insights into American culture and jazz history- the first example of

this being “Dizzy.” It is interesting to note that “Dizzy” was most commonly used to refer to the

baseball player, Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, also known as Jerome Herman Dean. According to

Wikipedia, Dizzy was a World Series champion in 1934, a four-time All-Star selection (1934,

1935, 1936, 1937), and had four consecutive strikeout titles between 1934 and 1937. Dizzy

Gillespie, on the other hand, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern

jazz in the 1940s. Thus, Gillespie was more current and on-trend than Dean was when “Dizzy”

most frequented the pages of TIME in the fifties and sixties. Therefore, TIME chose to talk

more about an older white baseball player rather than a black musician who was making

ground-breaking discoveries in music.

Likewise, after analyzing the TIME Magazine Corpus results from “Ellington”, thought-

provoking insights can be made into jazz history. As the most popular collocate is

understandably “Duke”, the second most popular is “Armstrong”. Why would Duke Ellington

be most popularly talked about along with Louis Armstrong? Under “Ellington’s” 2nd Most Pop

Dec., “Armstrong”, the publication does not refer to either of their personal skill sets,

accomplishments, nor music styles. In almost every publication that Ellington is mentioned, he

is being mentioned among a list of jazz pioneers and musicians. Although this is honorable,

TIME writers never looked deeper into the life of one of the most iconic and well-known jazz

musicians to date.

Lastly, “Ellington’s” most popular decade in which his name was published was the

1990s. To break it down even further, his name was mentioned five time in 1990, whereas it

was mentioned twenty-four times in 1999. As Ellington had a very long and successful career,

the height of it can be associated with the late fifties-late sixties. As this explains why the sixties

would be the second most common decade for Ellington’s name to show up in TIME articles, it

leaves the question- why was the most popular decade, in which his name was published, the

1990s? The height of his career was forty years in the past and his death was observed in the

mid-1970s. By using the Corpus’s tools, one can devise that Ellington was inducted into the

Grammy Hall of Fame multiple times, as well as the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, and also

won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999. Thus, Ellington’s legacy and work were being recognized thirty

years after his passing, and forty years after the height of his career. Although my research did

not lead me to find the answer to this question, I still wonder why it took the public decades to

acknowledge Ellington’s work, instead of honoring him during his career? Was this because

Ellington’s career was set in the civil rights era? Was it an innocent overlook made by TIME

Magazine editors? Or, was it explicit?

Fig 6: Instruments

Term Most Pop Coll. 2nd Most Pop Coll. Most Pop Decade 2nd Most Pop Decade

Trombone Trumpet Choir 1960s 1940s

Trumpet Player Call 1950s 1960s

Slide Guitar Twangs Snaky 2000s 1990s

Xylophone Vibraphone Like 1950s 1930s

Saxophone Player Playing 1990s 1950s

Lute Player Song 1940s 1920s

Kazoo Like Tooting 1950s 1960s

Analysis: Fig 6. does not exude many discrepancy’s in the history of jazz terminology or

American culture. The instruments listed are among the most common used in jazz music.

Therefore, their associated collocates and most popular decades accurately resemble that factor.

However, there are two interesting anomalies, both of which are found under the Most Pop

Decade column. First, the “slide guitar” is commonly known as a technique for playing the

guitar that is often used in blues-style music (according to Wikipedia). Additionally, rock

musicians became accustomed to using the electric slide guitar by the 1960s. But, why was it

not talked about until the 1990s and 2000s? By referring to the context of the collocates, with

regard to the dates, one can conclude that the slide guitar became even more popular between

the 1990s-2000s. More bands began to use the technique, some of the more popular bands being

the Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton in his Derek and the Dominos on the Layla and Other

Assorted Love Songs album.

Second, “saxophone” also found itself most commonly mentioned in the 1990s. With the

assistance of the Corpus’s tools, I concluded that “saxophone” was used most popularly in

1990s in order to refer to stories from jazz bands and anecdotes from the past. However,

approximately ten out of the forty-two times “saxophone” was used in TIME Magazine was

regarding government officials and senators. Most notably, Georgia Senator Wyche Fowler and

Senator Bill Clinton were stated to have a background in playing the saxophone. This particular

research project will not lead me to an answer; however, I wonder if there is connection

between having the knowledge, background, and skill-set in music and running for office or

holding a position of high power?

Fig 7: Elements of Music


Improvisation Air Jazz 1990s 1960s

Rhythm Blues Got 1960s 1990s

Riff Abd-El-Krim Guitar 1920s 2000s

Tempo Il Slow 1950s 1960s

Lick French Can 1940s 1950s

Jam Session Impromptu After-hours 1950s 1940s

Analysis: According to the Corpus, “improvisation” was most commonly referred to among the

phrase: “air of improvisation”. This phrase refers to the overall vibe and culture of not preparing

in advance and playing with a sense of spontaneity and creativity. This phrase was most

commonly used in TIME Magazine between the late-fifties and early-seventies. Additionally,

“improvisation” had a massive spike in references in 1994. The 1990’s documented the many

ways in which “improvisation,” specifically “jazz improvisation,” transformed into and effected

music today. Therefore, like the term “saxophone,” “improvisation” was used in connecting the

past with the future.

“Riff” is also an anomaly under the category of Elements of Music. This is one of the

few terms used in this research with a widespread range between the topics of collocates, as

well as between the Most Pop Decade and 2nd Most Pop Decade. By conducting further

research, I was able to conclude that Abd-El-Krim was a “riff”, a Berber-speaking individual of

Northwestern Africa, who derived his name from the Riff region in the northern edge of

Morocco (according to Wikipedia). Thus, the Most Pop Decade being the 1920s is explained, as

Abd-El-Krim was a Rifian political and military leader between the late-eighteen hundreds and

early-nineteen hundreds. However, the second most popular collocate to “riff” is in reference to

music. “Guitar” is popularly sited among “riff” between the late-eighties and early-two

thousands. Most of the references are referring to current events or the recent history of riffs.

Thus, my research in the Elements of Music led me to unexpected fields and topics. This not

only led me astray but was also telling of the terms’ use within the context of world history.

Fig 8: Genre


Swing Band

Leader Dorsey 1930s 1940s

Bebop Jazz Swing 1990s 1940s

Blues Street Singer 1990s 2000s

Ragtime Band Alexander 1990s 1980s

Big Band Era Jazz 1990s 2000s

Analysis: Most terminology under genre was used in TIME Magazine during 1990-2000s. In

most of cases, the collocates determined that the terms were used to describe a jazz style, which

is their proper use. These articles were recalling the past or were using history as a means to

look at the future. Thus, it is not shocking that genre terminology was used later than when jazz

hit its peak in history.

Fig 9: Dance Lingo


Jitterbug Foxtrot Couples 1940s 1930s

Swing Dance Learning Learned 2000s 1990s

Jive Talk Records 1940s 2000s

Boogie Woogie Bugle Broadway 1990s 1940s

Cakewalk Into Will 2000s 1920s

Lindy Hop Chass Oversexed 1930s 1960s

Flapper Era Cleopatra 1920s 1940s

Analysis: As “swing dance” was used the most in TIME during the 2000s and 1990s, it is

interesting to note that it was not mentioned at all before the nineties. Swing dancing emerged

in the 1930s and lasted for decades thereafter. Thus, these results beg the question- why was this

popular form of dance, that both people of black and white heritage accustomed, not mentioned

in the pages of TIME Magazine before the nineties?

Likewise, “Boogie Woogie’s” Most Pop Coll. in TIME is “bugle”. After further

research, I concluded that "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" was a major hit song, recorded in 1941,

by The Andrews Sisters and was an iconic World War II tune (according to Wikipedia).

Likewise, “Broadway” is explained by the 1943 painting by Piet Mondrian, entitled Broadway

Boogie Woogie. Thus, both collocates are most popular in the 1990s by way of reference. So,

the question of the 1940s remains. After further research the term “boogie woogie” was, in fact,

used to describe dance terminology. However, it was additionally used to describe night clubs

as well as a description of music (“a boogie woogie beat,” TIME 1946). Thus, one can conclude

that this jazz term took many forms and meanings throughout the jazz era.

Fig 10: Drug Lingo


Vipers Pit Room 1990s 2000s

Tea Man Higham Told 1920s ---

Heroin Addict Cocaine 1970s 1980s

Analysis: As mentioned above, these terms were chosen from a slew of well-known jazz

glossaries and dictionaries. However, the results from the Corpus were rather random and

perplexing.

In the jazz era, “tea man” was a common term used to describe someone who sells

marijuana, as well as to describe a drunk individual. As this phrase showed up in almost every

glossary and dictionary I cited, it was only published in TIME Magazine one time. In 1927 “tea

man” was used in TIME to describe a British tea man, Sir Charles Higham, who “told the Poor

Richard Club that President Coolidge is the best dressed man” (TIME, 1927). Thus, it was not

used in the correct jazz colloquialism. But, why? If the term was popularly used and

documented, then why did it never show up in a TIME Magazine article?

Fig 11: Phrases


Copacetic So Al 1970s 2000s

Giggle water Drives Girls 1920s 1960s

Razz Errors Band 1920s 1940s

Moldy fig Is Caulfield 1960s 1940s

satchel mouth “ Reverend 1930s ---

Analysis: Like Fig. 10, Fig.11 also came out with erratic results. “Giggle water” was a

commonly used phrase, meaning alcohol, during the jazz era. However, it was only used twice

in TIME; once in 1928 to describe a man who “gets full of giggle water and drives his car into a

creek while going to meet Waitress Pola” (TIME, 1928), and again in 1961 to describe a

delegate who had “come to Miami with more on his mind than girls and giggle water” (TIME,

1961). It is interesting to note that it was not used more in articles regarding the subject of jazz,

as a majority of jazz players were drinking on set and/or playing for a crowd who was drinking

alcoholic substances.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that “satchel mouth” was only used one time in the history

of TIME Magazine. “Satchel mouth” was the nickname for Louis Armstrong, debatably, the

most well-known jazz artist in American history. Therefore, why was this phrase only

mentioned once in TIME articles?

Conclusion

As previously stated, I will use Guldi’s inquiries into the pitfalls of word searching to guide and

judge my research. Therefore, I conclude:

1. This research is very much constrained by the queries of TIME Magazine. TIME

made interventions in subjects that they sought with no regard to the historiography of

the subject as a whole.

2. Technology (of searching) is, indeed, unreliable. As I would go back and check my

research, the Corpus tool would provide me with different results. Thus, changing my

analysis and conclusions.

3. Many terms are notorious for changing meanings, thus researching the history of

terms is extremely difficult.

Moreover, silences are among the most obvious conclusions from this investigation. There are

many silences and holes exuded in the terminology used to describe everything jazz-related in TIME

Magazine. Most of the questions I rhetorically ask in my analysis can, and must, be answered with

additional research. This research would contain questions such as: Who wrote these articles? Why

did they write them? Who was their intended audience? Were the editors/journalists white or black?

Did they have any previous knowledge on jazz terminology at the time? All these questions effect the

outcomes that I received from TIME Magazine Corpus. My results were mutilated and manipulated

by the history of TIME Magazine itself. Thus, it is necessary to research the background of TIME

Magazine to comprise an articulate, unabridged history on jazz terminology used in TIME

Magazines.

Or, is McCrae’s argument in “"What Is Hip?" and Other Inquiries in Jazz Slang

Lexicography" correct? He argued that jazz slang gradually faded and that the presence of such “lingo

in the language of jazz musicians declined, as jazz became more institutionalized, and rock and other

popular music genres superseded jazz in mass popularity.” If slang varied widely among circles

defined by race, gender, social class, and geographical region, then McCrae’s argument would

explain the lack of jazz terminology in TIME Magazine, right?

If I were to further this project, I would compare my results from TIME Magazine Corpus to

that of another publication or newspaper. To make the results even more apparent, I would use a

black publication, such as The Chicago Defender or the Richmond Planet. With the knowledge of

TIME Magazine history and the comparison of TIME Magazine articles to that of a black publication,

new results would be uncovered, as well as new insights into American culture and trends would be

able to be made.

As this is paper encompasses adequate research, I believe it is still very much unfinished. To

truly understand the history of jazz terminology in TIME Magazine, one will have to research the

authors, the authors backgrounds, the location and decade in which the articles were written and

published etc., as well as compare it to other publications. This is only an introduction into what can

be learned from this research by using a technological tool. It is rare to find research that approaches

digital media and content from the perspective of a historian. Thus, I can only hope that I, or someone

else, will continue to connect and converge the digital age with history.

List of Figures:

Fig. 1: List of terms chosen from McRae’s list

Fig 2: “Jazz Band” collocates

Fig 3: “Jazz Band” first collocate, Dixieland

Fig 4: “Jazz Band” vertical chart

Fig 5: Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Musicians

Fig 6: Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Instruments

Fig 7: Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Elements of Music

Fig 8: Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Genre

Fig 9” Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Dance Lingo

Fig 10: Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Drug Lingo

Fig 11: Original research from TIME Magazine Corpus: Phrases

Bibliography

Websites

Davies, Mark. “TIME Magazine Corpus: 100 million words, 1920s-2000s.” Available online at https://corpus.byu.edu/time/.(2007-)

Wikipedia

Articles

Ake, David. "Re-Masculating Jazz: Ornette Coleman, "Lonely Woman," and the New York Jazz Scene in the Late 1950s." American Music 16, no. 1 (1998): 25-44.

Brown, Lee B. “Postmodernist Jazz Theory: Afrocentrism, Old and New.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (1999): 235-246.

Guldi, Joanna. "The History of Walking and the Digital Turn: Stride and Lounge in London, 1808–1851." The Journal of Modern History, (March 2012): 116-144.

McRae, Rick. ""What Is Hip?" and Other Inquiries in Jazz Slang Lexicography." Notes 57, no. 3 (2001): 574-84.

Paper

Herschel, Olivia. “Evolvement of African Slave Spirituals into Modern Day Songs.” (2017)

Documents

€¦ · Web viewThis phrase was most commonly used in TIME Magazine between the late-fifties and early-seventies. Additionally, “improvisation” had a massive spike in references