What’s In A Name

What’s in a name? When it comes to music, more than meets the eye - or the ear.

At the turn of the century, polite society and proper church folk were appalled by the wild, noisy music that was played by brass bands up and down New Orleans’ Rampart Street.

One newspaper writer dismissed it as “chatter,” using the French verb jaser, and before long, everyone knew what it meant when a band went to jassing a tune. It took another ten years for jass to become jazz.

The first notation of “blue” to describe melancholy comes from Europe over five hundred years ago.

Finally, there has been much speculation about who created the term “rock-and-roll,” and when and why. No one knows for sure.

One thing we do know is when it first appeared in print. In June of 1946, Billboard Magazine stated that the latest record by Joe Liggins’ Honeydrippers was, quote: “right rhythmic rock-and-roll music.”

Insiders understood. Ten years later, the whole world knew what it meant.