How To Speak JAZZ 

It's not "duckets" its "ducats", like on a pirate ship. Great video... we all talk like this, wherever we are!

upstairs - to play up tempo, fast ("Did you hear Paul go upstairs on Cherokee?!! killin'!)

“cookin” has gotta be one of my favorites!

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!

"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.

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.

do some laps ~ go over tunes. "Come on over to the crib and we can do some laps."

Bag also means a player’s vocabulary ,chops , tricks etc.

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 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 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.

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

happnin' ~ adj. "Man, that trumpet cat James Moore is one of the most happnin' around the Burg, you dig?"

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!”

I like the term "Doghouse" for the upright bass.

I know a few terms. "The head", "The tag", "exchanging fours", "exchanging eights", "turnaround", "break."

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.

The cameos are killing’! 😂

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.

From Brazil here!! Great video, tks!

Dont forget "green" which means beginner or basic. "That guitarist was green". "Float" is also lend. Like "float me some duckets".

James Johnson III “What’s the jelly?” 🤣… priceless… 👌

"that dude was so sad when he was flexin' his jive at the session last night. He needs to hit the shed real hard!"

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.

Baby you're one bad cat! Love the way you speak. Learned about the Shed tonight when you scuffling 😂 Georgia ❤

Love all the cameos!

“Lamb Tongues” - money “Inside” or “Outside” - approach “Ictus” - beat drop or displacement

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

See also "the ONE" as in the first beat of the measure. Hit the one!

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. 🤕

I always thought "jazz cabbage" was hilarious, ditto "jazz-attitude cigarettes." Great video!

This was extremely fun & informative. Teachers should pay you to record this video for other topics. 👏🏼

THIS IS BRILLANCE! Love you Paul!

Thanks for including a definition of swing because you know, otherwise, it don’t mean a thing.

I really liked it. Two of my favorite things, music and language.

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. 😊

"J.A.M.F"....Brilliant, ya dig? Love the cameos!😁

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!

So great to discover ! thanks !

Another DC term "crank" as in that band was crankin..... Meaning they were exceptionally good. Another DC term.

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 ;)

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”. ✌️

Smoked....like not pot or cigs...like that cat "smoked those changes" like he nailed them. Im from San Antonio TX we got a great Jazz scene here. Friendly cats and some killin players! Jazz TX is the club to check out for live jazz by the best around the area. Also Parkers in Austin TX. Both owned by friends of mine. Dig it.

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.

"Killin'" is my favourite Jazz word, hello from Edmonton!

Recently discovered your channel, this one is funny and quite entertaining! Keep it up!

Good one! :-) Interestingly many of the terms are beeing used over here in Germany too,,,,

Learned some new terms. Thank you

I really dig this video. Thanks from japan

Great job, Paul. I refer to Robert S. Gold's "Jazz Talk" book to decypher the lingo of the earlier hipsters.

Brilliant!!. Plus, I have never heard you swear in 25 of knowing you!

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!

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”

"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.

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.

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".

My favorites are "clams" and "Shed" . Thanks Paul

Bad video, I dug it! My favorite was "Sears and Roebuck".

Thank you for the definition of 'swing ' that's a biggie for me to understand.

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...

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😅

"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.

Too good 😂

Love it. I think my favorite jazz word is “China”

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.

There gotta be more videos on jazz speak

gym.. as in got you get back in the gym. Meaning rehearsal or rehearsal studio. Washington DC

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

“that slaps” jazz lingo of today’s youth expressing the liking of.

chris coles is one of my teachers; welcome surprise to see him on the channel!

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'm sure some of the Sicilians down in New Orleans used 'scarole for money... 🤣

Jazz Guru

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

This video vibes me with Jazzsplaining. Was a drag on my tempo.

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.

I'm trying to learn how to be a cool cat. This is very helpful. Dig?

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" ?

can confirm the society gigs still exist.

Skidelee Wah. :)

James Jamerson!

Old one - "ice cream changes" means a 3 6 2 5 vamp

serious question - will i sound like a poseur if i start using these terms, even though I'm still very much a developing musician?

Rhythm changes

Lol @ your jism reaction

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 ain't safe being a jive turkey this close to Thanksgiving.

did you mention "solid" ?

ECM this one has an ECM feel… (straight 8 feel)

My word is “tasty”

Jazz slang terms, or as I like to call them, "Jazzisms", or for short....

I was very much surprised by the S&R slang…

Room is pretty dead= lifeless or small to no crowd at the gig and/or not making much scratch

(Bitchin') video 😎

Money = gold dust or gold or dust. West coast.

you kinda look like al jareau

'Blow' can also mean 'scram' (I'm sick of you man... blow.) It would never be used like this in a jazz setting so it depends on context.