Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1917-09-01
THE APPEAL OF THE PRIMITIVE JAZZ
Uiterary Digest)

ulaf music. IL is Jazz, USED mainly as
an adjective descriptive of band. The
group that play for dancing when colored,
seem infected with the virus that they try
to instil as stimulus in others. They
shake and jump and writhe in ways to
suggest return of the medieval jumping
mania. The word, according to Walter
Kingsley, famous in the ranks Of vaude-
vile, is variously spelled jas, jass,, jasz
and jascz; and is African in origin. Laf-
cadio Hearn, we are told, found the word
in the Creole patois and idiom Of New
Orleans and reported that it meant ''speed-
ing up things" The Creoles had taken
it from the blacks, and ''applied it to music
Of documentary syncopated type" In
the New York Sun, Mr.. Kingsley rehearses
many of the curious facts and customs as
ISOLATED with the word:
''In the old plantation days, when the
slaves were having one Of their rare holi-
days and the fun languished, some West
Coast African would cry out, 'Jaz her up
and this would be the cue for fast and
furious fun No doubt the witch-doctors
and medicine-men on the Kongo used the
same term at those jungle parties when
the tomtoms throbbed and the sturdy war
riors gave their pep an added kick with
rich brews Of Yohimbn bark-that precious
product of the ameruns Curiously enough
the phrase 'Jaz her up is a common one
today in vaudeville and on the circus lot.
When a vaudeville act needs ginger the
cry from the advisers in the wings is put
in the JAZZ, meaning add low comedy, go
to high speed and accelerate the comedy
spark. 'JasbO' is a form of the word COM
mon in the varieties, meaning the same as
'hokum,' or low comedy verging on vul-
garity.
''Jazz music is the delirium tremens of
syncopation. 1t is strict rhythm without
melody. Today the jazz bands take pop
ular tunes and rag them to death to make
jazz. Beats are added as often as the deli
cacy of the players ear will permit In
one-two time a third beat is interpolated
There are many half notes or less and
many long-drawn, wavering tones It is
an attempt to reproduce the marvellous syn
copation Of the African JUNGLE
Contribution is drawn from Prof VIM.
Morrison Patterson's pioneering expert
mental investigation of the individual diff
ference in the sense of rhythm'' Thus:
The music of contemporary savages
taunts us with lost art Of rhythm. Mod
ern sophistication has inhibited many ma
tive instincts, and the mere fact that our
conventional dignity usually forbids us to
sway our bodies or to tap our feet when
we hear effective music has deprived us
OIL unsupported pleasures. PROFESSOR rat
terson goes on to say that the ear keenly
sensible of these wild rhythms has 'rhyth-
mic aggressiveness. Therefore of all mod
erns the jazz musicians and their auditors
have the most rhythmic aggressiveness, for
jazz is based on the savage musicians Won
derful gift for progressive retarding and
acceleration guided by his sense of swing
He finds syncopation easy and pleasant.
He plays to an inner series of time-beats
joyfully 'elastic' because not necessarily
grouped in succession of twos and threes.
The highly gifted jazz artist can get away
with five beats where there were but two
before. Of course, besides the thirty-sec-
onds scored for the tympani in some of
the modern Russian music, this doesn't
seem so intricate, but just try to beat in
between beats on your kettle-drum and
make rhythm and you will think better of
it. TO be highbrow and quote Professor