 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-01-12 14:04
Recently while reading John Chilton's book on Sidney Bechet I came across the following: Bechet says to a rival sax player , "bring along your ax".....(meaning "sax"). The time period was around 1919. Just another possibility.
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Author: William
Date: 2004-01-12 14:33
To a musician, their instrument is a musical tool--like the ax is to the lumberjack. Just an analogy..........that's all folks!!
And "gig" is simply a shortened way of saying, engagement.
But why is a musical mistake often referred to as a "clam"??
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Author: Tim F
Date: 2004-01-12 14:41
And, if a single clam is the beginning of a clambake, what is the smaller version of a trainwreck?
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-01-12 14:46
Re: "axe": You may occasionally hear a musician talk about needing to "shed" or "woodshed" --- this means 'going into the woodshed to sharpen his axe' (i.e. instrument). More trivia for your files.
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Author: bud
Date: 2004-01-12 14:53
"And, if a single clam is the beginning of a clambake, what is the smaller version of a trainwreck?"
well we always used to start with - "the wheels are falling off...."
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2004-01-12 14:53
And the term "cats" or "hip/hep cats?" How is someone really "hip?"
Yeah, Daddy!
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-01-12 15:08
How about from Woody Herman and The Woodchumper's Ball, or other "timber" associations? As I recall our "musical language", these terms became widely used in the '50's + cool jazz period. Thots?? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: FrankM
Date: 2004-01-12 15:13
I just finished a bio on Louis Armstrong....I believe "cats" was his
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-01-12 18:22
I just finished reading a bio on Andrew Lloyd Webber... "cats" was his ...GBK
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-01-12 19:06
Good for You, GBK, with a cap. C and whiskers, what a show! I just knew I had something with our peculiar language in it. I found an old, browned paper, paperback, "The Jazz Word", Dom Cerulli, Burt Korall, Mort Nasatir, apparently in the 1950's, which has a few pages devoted to "The Argot of Jazz" by Elliot Horne. In it, ax = any musical instrument, even a piano; Cat = a male, lots more, just ask!! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2004-01-13 01:40
Bass players, here in Australia at least, refer to the electric guitar as a stick and the double bass as a tree.
The term axe may also come from the old cutting contests/jam sessions held after hours by jazz musicians. What better to cut with than an axe!
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-01-13 03:47
It's silly really, the word Clarinet works perfectly well. Why one has to disguise or obscure a noun by vernacularized, idiomatic banter is a puzzle.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
Post Edited (2004-01-13 20:15)
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Author: bud
Date: 2004-01-13 05:26
well well GBK
next time youse seppo bludgers come visit the old steak and kidney you might be needing a squiz at that site. (Because the scary thing is, it's all true) Anyway, gotta go - flat out like a lizard drinkin..........
Oh. BTW, if you do ever visit 'straylia, just DON'T say 'fanny', over here, that's on the other side.......
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2004-01-13 08:24
diz wrote:
It's silly really, the word Clarient [sic] works perfectly well. Why one has to disguise or obscure a noun by vernacularized, idiomatic banter is a puzzle.
hear hear
-----------
If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-01-13 15:08
"why do they call it a clam?"...because it stinks.
"woodshed"....in bygone days a misbehaving kid was taken to the woodshed for his punishment by his dad. Therefore, the woodshed became a place known for doing your penance.
Jazz (aka Jass ) wasn't invented in the 50s.
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-01-13 20:18
Sorry, ironically I misspelled clarinet ... fixed now thanks to Mark's new and improved web editing features.
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-01-13 20:21
Seppo : an American
I'll explain this one ... a favourite of mine. Seppo (not sure of its first useage) is rhyming slang for Yank ... considering seppo is abbreviated from "septic tank" - hence the rhyme with Yank.
Yes, but generally, I don't go in for all that vernacular, because it's just too difficult to explain when talking to Seppos.
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2004-01-13 20:22
Hey, Diz, that's some pretty neat Auzzie slang in that dictionary there! Just digging your ribs.
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-01-13 20:28
Brenda, unfortunately we don't have a "quaint" term of endearment for our Canadian cousins (even those expat-seppo ones).
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-01-13 20:31
GBK - another favourite is the fourth entry under the letter C (I won't type it here or I'll get banned by you/Mark for using filthy language).
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2004-01-13 20:41
(LOL) I knew you'd be at work and keeping your eye on this site. Maybe you'll have to invent an appropriate term, eh?
This topic is actually quite a serious one in ESL classes. My daughter taught English in Quebec and scoured the libraries and book stores for books of idioms and so forth so she could make up class exercises using common English/Canadian slang. It's baffling for outsiders to hear conversations between - the English, the Scotts, even the Newfies in Canada, and you could make your own list. We especially appreciate our Canadian Oxford Dictionary to clear up some of these phrases that the Yankees don't use.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-01-14 14:39
Maybe it was from Zeppo, the later absent fourth Marx brother........Yanks being absent brothers of Aussies...until WWII
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2004-01-14 14:54
Canadian isn't too hard to understand. For example, the American plays "Take the A Train", the Canadian plays "Take the Train, Eh?"
John
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2004-01-14 16:44
Oh, and the difference between American geese and Cdn geese, one says "Honk" and the other "Honk, eh?" Now, do you Californians (or Auzzies) know what a touque is? You'd better not be out on your dogsled without one.
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2004-01-14 17:25
Frank Abagnale Jr. showed, as in the film "Catch Me If You Can", that all you need to fake your way through a gig, besides a large dose of unmitigated gall, is a basic knowledge of the required vocabulary.
You Too Can Be A Jazz Musician. All you need to know are these five little words:
Axe: that thing you play.
Gig: where you play it, hopefully for bread.
Chart: them dots and lines. Helps if you can read 'em, too.
Changes: them letters and numbers above the dots. Helps to read these, too.
Chops: how good you play your axe. Working toward "Good chops, man!"
|-(8^)
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Author: JimV
Date: 2004-01-15 05:04
Right on Ralph
Axe: that thing you play.
Gig: where you play it, hopefully for bread.
Chart: them dots and lines. Helps if you can read 'em, too.
Changes: them letters and numbers above the dots. Helps to read these, too.
Chops: how good you play your axe. Working toward "Good chops, man!"
I hope the bread you refer to is money! You know, some 'jack'.
Jim
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