Posted by Anthony on August 30, 2002 at 05:52:15:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: smaller sousa posted by uhhh... on August 29, 2002 at 21:09:35:
You're mistaken. Ken Burns is most likely at fault, for representing Winton Marsalis' speculative origin of the word in his documentary series as fact. Jazz came to mean "sexual intercourse" long after it existed as an art form(that is, long after JAZZ existed as an art form!!).
The term jazz comes from the term 'jass', which is the style of music brought to North America from Africa during the slave trade. The music evolved into what it is today, as did the spelling of it's name.
Anthony