"Can you swing that Axe?" (NYC) Definition can you play ? The best response I received from a young Bass player was "No, it swings me." Dark - evil (NYC) "From the Git - Go" - From the start (NYC) also "From the Gitty Yap" One of my favorite expressions come from Dr. Maya Angelou "Singin' and swingin' and gettin' merry like Christmas!" "I got the world in a jug and the stopper in my hand." (Charleston,S.C. circa. 1940's) "Slick" - Very cosmopolitan, sly (NYC) "Sky" - hat, headpiece. "Man" - (noun, adj.) In 1940's Black musicians began addressing one another as "Man" because the racial climate of the U.S. would refer to adult Black males as "boy". (Adj.)" He played like a natural Man." I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.
This is PRICELESS, Paul!! What a cool idea. I loved your explanations and the slammin' examples of the slang words. I dug seeing all the Burgh cats who I adore being a part of it!! I even learned a few new ones... Never heard the Sears & Roebuck reference!
Hip to the script. But the cat on the soundtrack is burnin'. I'm in San Francisco, but started in Tucson. Back then, you introduced a bad cat by saying, "That's a [name of instrument] playin' emmeffer there."
The explaining of the words, or their meaning, is not only a way to learn the language, or music, in this case. This video is brilliant, to me. It is jazz education, at its best. I am so thankfull, for every video, you upload.
I've heard and used "downbeat" to refer to the start time of a gig. If the downbeat is at 8pm, then you have to plan time for loading in your gear! I'm from L.A., but it's a pretty ubiquitous term.
Many of these were familiar to the cats I gig with here in MD. But from your video I did teach them a new one. Last night at sound check we were running through the list and talking solo order and I asked if this tune was an "all skate" ...got looked at funny for a sec but after I explained it they loved it! - a new jazz slang term has been introduced. Thanks Paul and keep up the amazing content 👏
I dug this video. I'm from Boston MA area. We used to use the term dough for money (bread that ain't baked yet?) and clams could also mean money as in "got a hundred clams for that gig" I always assumed in this region it was a reference to the early native Americans use of wampum or seashells for money? Also hear the full term woodshedding wasn't aware of the shortened shed. I think some things can be super regional like neighborhood to neighborhood. Anyways cool vid.
I’m from Kansas City, a lot of the horn players here refer to “clams” as “bifs.” Like: “man, I had a pretty good solo, but there were a few bifs in there!”
Today l sent the way l sent you the "medbed Intel & pacient feedback". I beñieve if you sign up you're allowed a free trail. Good luck. Your guy from Chile.
One of the things I love about jazz slang, is that very often, you instantly get what it means, simply from the context, even in the case of words that normally mean the opposite, such as "bad". And while I'm sure that there was similar types of slang used before jazz music became a thing, I do get the feeling that a lot of the slang used in other fields today, both musically (such as hip hop) and in other cultures, like gaming etc. is very inspired/influenced by jazz slang. Terms like "word", "dope" or "dank" have a very similar flavour to that of jazz slang.
Good stuff Paul. And it needed to be said... So, when a city has ZERO Jazz happening in any paid gigs, we here in SLC who experience this scenario, call it, “no where”, as in, “the jazz scene here is no where”..... And then congruently, that reality leads to our other SLC slang which illustrates the financial reality of jazz in our city, “for the love of the game”, as in, we only play jazz here for the love of the game”. ✌️
"Stretch Out": a totally improvised solo that is usually long, and knows no real time or measure limits. It was 'Trane's excuse for his often unbridled, almost transcendental tendency to stretch out that prompted Miles to retort, "...hell, take the damn horn outta yo' mouth..." [Laffin' 😄] Also, "Trading Fours": related to the four bar solos the musicians exchange usually near the end of the piece. Always heard it in the music, never knew there was an actual name for it, until just recently when I took a composition class at the local university here.
Slang phrase from the ever colorful Bill Heid(met him in DC): "high intellect grease" Think greasy soulfulness + a high level of musical knowledge/craftsmanship/intellectual ingenuity...
I'm hella late to this party, but let me throw in a couple to the mix. First, Japanese also uses the expression "bad". YABAI (yah - bah - ee) literally means an undesirable condition or quality BUT it is also a slang term. As Run-DMC might put it, YABAI is "not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good." Second, the Bay Area's own E-40 gave his own special twist to "Ya dig me?" He would say, "Ya unda-dig me?" instead of "Ya know whut I'm sayin'?" or "Do you understand me?" Hip Hop culture flows directly from and is arguably a current form of jazz, so it's natural that the best artists pull from and build upon the linguistic and musical tradition that is JAZZ!
My ol' buddy Matthew Schneider moved to Chicago back in '99 or so. He knew the Velvet Lounge was the spot for players to go to introduce themselves to the scene, and his guitar chops got him a chance to sit in on a weeknight pretty quickly. He didn't know that Fred Anderson *always* worked the door himself until he had to join the band, though, so when Matt anxiously clambered through the front with his box in one hand and a Twin Reverb in the other, he very nearly knocked a 70-year-old legend right off his chair. 🤕
damn, pd. Just finished reading Sonny's Blues with my American Lit class. Could have been perfect to show this video while teaching that Baldwin short story. Next time. My favorite slang is JAMF, because Kenny Washington called me a JAMF at one of Johnny Griffin's last gigs at the Blue Note. That's what I get for sitting front row. Priceless ;)
HIt: Starting time as in what time do we hit it? I'm also fond of referring to the bass as the doghouse. From San Francisco to NYC to Boston. Now in North Carolina.
I haven't heard the term "steppin' out" lately. However, back in day it was quite popular. My name is Enrique Luna. Born in Perú, raised in New York and I reside in Chile.
Great video. One of the most frequent words I hear in my circle and use myself that you didn't really address is "out". Obviously it means playing "out"side the changes i.e. chromatic/non-diatonic harmony. But it also can refer to a person who is strange, uncouth, frenetic, etc. It can be interpreted as insult but not as severe a rebuke as jive. The musician in the band who shows up drunk to the gig and hits on your girlfriend could be described as "out". Or it is an excellent one-word retort to a strange, unjust, or confusing situation. "Oh, the airline didn't let you take your horn on the plane? That's fucking out". Fold also has a deeper meaning to me than what you laid out in the vid. Certainly you can fold on a gig, on a tune, and you can "be" a fold if you're a shitty player. The insult goes a little deeper, with a certain emphasis, describing a person as a "fold" can be interpreted as "they fail at everything they attempt and are a sorry excuse for a person".
Dig it, man! We started the practice a few years back of literally handing out a glossary to incoming freshmen to help demystify their college jazz experience.
Here's a good one I used to play jazz gigs with this drummer who would when I was walking encourage me by saying " Yo, gimme some more of them "Flippety Bops" He meant triplets. He was a real character I loved that guy.
Hey man - this is perfect, and my family and students will be getting the link. I’m originally from Upstate NY, so all of this is exactly how I speak. I now live in Portland OR, and the phrases are pretty much the same. The one you didn’t mention is the thing one says to someone after they blew some beautiful s**t - “yeah, man”, a high compliment with the right inflection. Thank you - perfect, cat
Cool man. I dig the slang. I’ve always been curious how these words got into our everyday use. Im not in the jazz scene but I do hear it’s slang in the general music scene at times, even outside of music. Peace from socal.
Wow... love the documentary on Jazz language off the stage. I've been playing Bass for over 10 years. How do I find my tribe? I love jazz and instrumental music but it's been a bit frustrating to find and play the music I love. Should I just start my own band and create my own "tribe" ?
"crash out" - is not featured in the video, but it exists in jazz. It is heavily used in rock music. But in jazz, this is the "exclamation point" of a trash can chord in a jazz number, usually done by an accented chord (usually short), also known as a "cut-off" chord, which definitely ends the music. A "crash-out" can also be done by a jazz drummer as well as jazz musicians playing pitched instruments. Buddy Rich was, in my opinion, "the king of crash-outs". His usual crash-out is a short "blast beating" explosion on the bass drum/cymbals of most Buddy Rich jazz band songs.
Great job Paul ! Here is= one I learned from pianist Mike Wofford (Ella , Sarah etc) -- "Stroll" meant for the pianist to lay out during a horn solo,,, Rob in. San Diego
When I was young I toke lessons from this old jazz guitarist back in Philadelphia and I was playing a chord progression that he had rolled out and I was all over the place and he told me to “stay in the pocket “and I didn’t understand what he was telling me but then when he explain to me what it meant, that cat meant a lot to me growing up so that probably is my favorite slang term😅
Here in the northwest Vancouver Seattle down to Portland you'll hear somebody say don't play none of that G s*** meaning don't play that melodic elevator Kenny G jazz
i already knew most of the terms, but to me this is like trying to define what makes people laugh; the mere act of putting it in dictionary form takes much of the juice and hipness out of it.
It's not "duckets" its "ducats", like on a pirate ship. Great video... we all talk like this, wherever we are!
Seriously...you're gonna correct slang?!?!
Potato, potatato, tomato, tomaato, let's call the whole thing off!
Bag also means a player’s vocabulary ,chops , tricks etc.
"Can you swing that Axe?" (NYC)
Definition can you play ?
The best response I received from a young Bass player was "No, it swings me."
Dark - evil (NYC)
"From the Git - Go" - From the start (NYC) also "From the Gitty Yap"
One of my favorite expressions come from Dr. Maya Angelou
"Singin' and swingin' and gettin' merry like Christmas!"
"I got the world in a jug and the stopper in my hand." (Charleston,S.C. circa. 1940's)
"Slick" - Very cosmopolitan, sly (NYC)
"Sky" - hat, headpiece.
"Man" - (noun, adj.) In 1940's Black musicians began addressing one another as "Man" because the racial climate of the U.S. would refer to adult Black males as "boy".
(Adj.)" He played like a natural Man."
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.
upstairs - to play up tempo, fast ("Did you hear Paul go upstairs on Cherokee?!! killin'!)
“cookin” has gotta be one of my favorites!
do some laps ~ go over tunes. "Come on over to the crib and we can do some laps."
This is PRICELESS, Paul!! What a cool idea. I loved your explanations and the slammin' examples of the slang words. I dug seeing all the Burgh cats who I adore being a part of it!! I even learned a few new ones... Never heard the Sears & Roebuck reference!
Hip to the script. But the cat on the soundtrack is burnin'.
I'm in San Francisco, but started in Tucson. Back then, you introduced a bad cat by saying, "That's a [name of instrument] playin' emmeffer there."
FINALLY got around to checking this whole video out...Loved it🤗
The bass-playing in the background is just wonderful, too.
I LOVE THIS!! I've been talking in this way just about all my life. This language is the way we all talked when I was growing up in the 70s.
The woodshed is where you swing your ax ,to get your chops together. From DC, but have played on the W. Coast , last 40+ years
The old cats used to use Stroll when you want the rhythm section to drop out doing a solo. This is a great video knowing the vernacular. 😊
I had always heard it as playing with only the bass behind you.
The explaining of the words, or their meaning, is not only a way to learn the language, or music, in this case.
This video is brilliant, to me.
It is jazz education, at its best.
I am so thankfull, for every video, you upload.
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
“Lamb Tongues” - money
“Inside” or “Outside” - approach
“Ictus” - beat drop or displacement
I know a few terms. "The head", "The tag", "exchanging fours", "exchanging eights", "turnaround", "break."
From Brazil here!! Great video, tks!
I like the term "Doghouse" for the upright bass.
I've heard and used "downbeat" to refer to the start time of a gig. If the downbeat is at 8pm, then you have to plan time for loading in your gear! I'm from L.A., but it's a pretty ubiquitous term.
Many of these were familiar to the cats I gig with here in MD. But from your video I did teach them a new one. Last night at sound check we were running through the list and talking solo order and I asked if this tune was an "all skate" ...got looked at funny for a sec but after I explained it they loved it! - a new jazz slang term has been introduced. Thanks Paul and keep up the amazing content 👏
I really liked it. Two of my favorite things, music and language.
I dug this video. I'm from Boston MA area. We used to use the term dough for money (bread that ain't baked yet?) and clams could also mean money as in "got a hundred clams for that gig" I always assumed in this region it was a reference to the early native Americans use of wampum or seashells for money? Also hear the full term woodshedding wasn't aware of the shortened shed. I think some things can be super regional like neighborhood to neighborhood. Anyways cool vid.
Another DC term "crank" as in that band was crankin..... Meaning they were exceptionally good. Another DC term.
Wow! Cool and informative! I'm from Kingston PA. a suburb of Wilkes-Barre.....about 100 miles from NYC and Philly.
Dont forget "green" which means beginner or basic. "That guitarist was green". "Float" is also lend. Like "float me some duckets".
I’m from Kansas City, a lot of the horn players here refer to “clams” as “bifs.” Like: “man, I had a pretty good solo, but there were a few bifs in there!”
See also "the ONE" as in the first beat of the measure. Hit the one!
Thanks for including a definition of swing because you know, otherwise, it don’t mean a thing.
Love all the cameos!
Today l sent the way l sent you the "medbed Intel & pacient feedback". I beñieve if you sign up you're allowed a free trail. Good luck. Your guy from Chile.
happnin' ~ adj. "Man, that trumpet cat James Moore is one of the most happnin' around the Burg, you dig?"
One of the things I love about jazz slang, is that very often, you instantly get what it means, simply from the context, even in the case of words that normally mean the opposite, such as "bad". And while I'm sure that there was similar types of slang used before jazz music became a thing, I do get the feeling that a lot of the slang used in other fields today, both musically (such as hip hop) and in other cultures, like gaming etc. is very inspired/influenced by jazz slang. Terms like "word", "dope" or "dank" have a very similar flavour to that of jazz slang.
gym.. as in got you get back in the gym. Meaning rehearsal or rehearsal studio.
Washington DC
"J.A.M.F"....Brilliant, ya dig?
Love the cameos!😁
I really dig this video. Thanks from japan
Good stuff Paul. And it needed to be said...
So, when a city has ZERO Jazz happening in any paid gigs, we here in SLC who experience this scenario, call it, “no where”, as in, “the jazz scene here is no where”..... And then congruently, that reality leads to our other SLC slang which illustrates the financial reality of jazz in our city, “for the love of the game”, as in, we only play jazz here for the love of the game”. ✌️
The cameos are killing’! 😂
Good one! :-) Interestingly many of the terms are beeing used over here in Germany too,,,,
"Stretch Out": a totally improvised solo that is usually long, and knows no real time or measure limits. It was 'Trane's excuse for his often unbridled, almost transcendental tendency to stretch out that prompted Miles to retort, "...hell, take the damn horn outta yo' mouth..." [Laffin' 😄]
Also, "Trading Fours": related to the four bar solos the musicians exchange usually near the end of the piece. Always heard it in the music, never knew there was an actual name for it, until just recently when I took a composition class at the local university here.
Slang phrase from the ever colorful Bill Heid(met him in DC): "high intellect grease"
Think greasy soulfulness + a high level of musical knowledge/craftsmanship/intellectual ingenuity...
YES!! I'm actually cutting a record with Bill next weekend. Perfectly said!
@@pdbass Tell him drummer Marty Morrison STILL tells great Bill Heid stories😉
a favorite is using ‘horn’ in place of axe… especially when talking to a guitarist for example.
“grab your horn, Sco, lets run a couple down”
James Johnson III “What’s the jelly?”
🤣… priceless… 👌
Love it. I think my favorite jazz word is “China”
???
@@pdbass y'know: cymbals, hi-hats. i've only heard used by nyc friends.
@@TheDavuFlint Oh--I got you! Here we say "China cymbal"
I'm hella late to this party, but let me throw in a couple to the mix. First, Japanese also uses the expression "bad". YABAI (yah - bah - ee) literally means an undesirable condition or quality BUT it is also a slang term. As Run-DMC might put it, YABAI is "not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good." Second, the Bay Area's own E-40 gave his own special twist to "Ya dig me?" He would say, "Ya unda-dig me?" instead of "Ya know whut I'm sayin'?" or "Do you understand me?" Hip Hop culture flows directly from and is arguably a current form of jazz, so it's natural that the best artists pull from and build upon the linguistic and musical tradition that is JAZZ!
Baby you're one bad cat! Love the way you speak. Learned about the Shed tonight when you scuffling 😂 Georgia ❤
This was extremely fun & informative. Teachers should pay you to record this video for other topics. 👏🏼
My ol' buddy Matthew Schneider moved to Chicago back in '99 or so. He knew the Velvet Lounge was the spot for players to go to introduce themselves to the scene, and his guitar chops got him a chance to sit in on a weeknight pretty quickly. He didn't know that Fred Anderson *always* worked the door himself until he had to join the band, though, so when Matt anxiously clambered through the front with his box in one hand and a Twin Reverb in the other, he very nearly knocked a 70-year-old legend right off his chair.
🤕
Man....I love this channel. But I LOVED!!! this video. Lol The explanation on JAMF had me dying!!! The highest level of Jiveness u can attain. Lol lol
damn, pd. Just finished reading Sonny's Blues with my American Lit class. Could have been perfect to show this video while teaching that Baldwin short story. Next time. My favorite slang is JAMF, because Kenny Washington called me a JAMF at one of Johnny Griffin's last gigs at the Blue Note. That's what I get for sitting front row. Priceless ;)
Brilliant!!. Plus, I have never heard you swear in 25 of knowing you!
It was muted, so technically you still haven't. ;)
HIt: Starting time as in what time do we hit it? I'm also fond of referring to the bass as the doghouse. From San Francisco to NYC to Boston. Now in North Carolina.
I haven't heard the term "steppin' out" lately. However, back in day it was quite popular.
My name is Enrique Luna. Born in Perú, raised in New York and I reside in Chile.
Good one!
@@pdbass HAROLD VICK LP TLE ON BN !!! a good'un
Great video. One of the most frequent words I hear in my circle and use myself that you didn't really address is "out". Obviously it means playing "out"side the changes i.e. chromatic/non-diatonic harmony. But it also can refer to a person who is strange, uncouth, frenetic, etc. It can be interpreted as insult but not as severe a rebuke as jive. The musician in the band who shows up drunk to the gig and hits on your girlfriend could be described as "out". Or it is an excellent one-word retort to a strange, unjust, or confusing situation. "Oh, the airline didn't let you take your horn on the plane? That's fucking out".
Fold also has a deeper meaning to me than what you laid out in the vid. Certainly you can fold on a gig, on a tune, and you can "be" a fold if you're a shitty player. The insult goes a little deeper, with a certain emphasis, describing a person as a "fold" can be interpreted as "they fail at everything they attempt and are a sorry excuse for a person".
Dig it, man! We started the practice a few years back of literally handing out a glossary to incoming freshmen to help demystify their college jazz experience.
I loved this whole video. Thank you!
I call my friends “cats” and “kittens” all the time
I don’t play jazz but I love the music and the slang is bad!
Here's a good one I used to play jazz gigs with this drummer who would when I was walking encourage me by saying " Yo, gimme some more of them "Flippety Bops" He meant triplets. He was a real character I loved that guy.
Learned some new terms. Thank you
I always thought "jazz cabbage" was hilarious, ditto "jazz-attitude cigarettes." Great video!
"Killin'" is my favourite Jazz word, hello from Edmonton!
Hey man - this is perfect, and my family and students will be getting the link.
I’m originally from Upstate NY, so all of this is exactly how I speak. I now live in Portland OR, and the phrases are pretty much the same.
The one you didn’t mention is the thing one says to someone after they blew some beautiful s**t - “yeah, man”, a high compliment with the right inflection.
Thank you - perfect, cat
Bad video, I dug it! My favorite was "Sears and Roebuck".
Cool man. I dig the slang. I’ve always been curious how these words got into our everyday use. Im not in the jazz scene but I do hear it’s slang in the general music scene at times, even outside of music. Peace from socal.
chris coles is one of my teachers; welcome surprise to see him on the channel!
You are very fortunate-he is a “BAMF”!! Do whatever he tells you to!
"that dude was so sad when he was flexin' his jive at the session last night. He needs to hit the shed real hard!"
Wow... love the documentary on Jazz language off the stage.
I've been playing Bass for over 10 years. How do I find my tribe? I love jazz and instrumental music but it's been a bit frustrating to find and play the music I love. Should I just start my own band and create my own "tribe" ?
You gotta leave the house. Look for local music. Jam sessions. Live people playing in person.
There gotta be more videos on jazz speak
Society gigs def exist today, just depends on where you play. I get a bunch of society gigs in princeton but not as many closer to where I live.
"crash out" - is not featured in the video, but it exists in jazz. It is heavily used in rock music. But in jazz, this is the "exclamation point" of a trash can chord in a jazz number, usually done by an accented chord (usually short), also known as a "cut-off" chord, which definitely ends the music.
A "crash-out" can also be done by a jazz drummer as well as jazz musicians playing pitched instruments.
Buddy Rich was, in my opinion, "the king of crash-outs". His usual crash-out is a short "blast beating" explosion on the bass drum/cymbals of most Buddy Rich jazz band songs.
This video vibes me with Jazzsplaining. Was a drag on my tempo.
🤣🤣🤣
My favorites are "clams" and "Shed" . Thanks Paul
Thank you for the definition of 'swing ' that's a biggie for me to understand.
Great job Paul !
Here is= one I learned from pianist Mike Wofford (Ella , Sarah etc) -- "Stroll" meant for the pianist to lay out during a horn solo,,, Rob in. San Diego
i’ve known strolling to describe someone blowing over walking bass..no one playing chords. allows for a bit more openness in interpreted harmony
When I was young I toke lessons from this old jazz guitarist back in Philadelphia and I was playing a chord progression that he had rolled out and I was all over the place and he told me to “stay in the pocket “and I didn’t understand what he was telling me but then when he explain to me what it meant, that cat meant a lot to me growing up so that probably is my favorite slang term😅
So great to discover ! thanks !
Jazz Guru
THIS IS BRILLANCE! Love you Paul!
Here in the northwest Vancouver Seattle down to Portland you'll hear somebody say don't play none of that G s*** meaning don't play that melodic elevator Kenny G jazz
James Jamerson!
serious question - will i sound like a poseur if i start using these terms, even though I'm still very much a developing musician?
Great job, Paul. I refer to Robert S. Gold's "Jazz Talk" book to decypher the lingo of the earlier hipsters.
Jazz slang terms, or as I like to call them, "Jazzisms", or for short....
Recently discovered your channel, this one is funny and quite entertaining! Keep it up!
I'm sure some of the Sicilians down in New Orleans used 'scarole for money... 🤣
“that slaps” jazz lingo of today’s youth expressing the liking of.
I'm trying to learn how to be a cool cat. This is very helpful. Dig?
can confirm the society gigs still exist.
did you mention "solid" ?
Too good 😂
i already knew most of the terms, but to me this is like trying to define what makes people laugh; the mere act of putting it in dictionary form takes much
of the juice and hipness out of it.
Old one - "ice cream changes" means a 3 6 2 5 vamp
NICE one!
Rhythm changes
Skidelee Wah. :)
ECM
this one has an ECM feel… (straight 8 feel)
ECM: Long on chops, short on swing.
Lol @ your jism reaction
Money = gold dust or gold or dust. West coast.
My word is “tasty”
Room is pretty dead= lifeless or small to no crowd at the gig and/or not making much scratch
It ain't safe being a jive turkey this close to Thanksgiving.
(Bitchin') video 😎
you kinda look like al jareau
gasm
Spasm😂