JAZZ
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Will you allow me to protest most strongly against the now almost universal use of the 'epithet " jazz " to describe what is really syncopated music ? The two are entirely different. Jazz music is essentially erratic ; it gets the weirdest possible effects by breaking all the rules. As far as I can elicit, the word came from a little town in the Southern States of America where the " toughs " used to shout " Chas. 1 Chas. ! " for a negro minstrel, Charles by name.
" Chas." became " Jazz," and the name stuck to the " music," which took New York by storm at the time of the Armistice. But when folk cooled down " jazz " properly so termed gently expired. Is it not, then, grotesque that a self- respecting syncopated orchestra should inherit this wretched epithet ? A syncopated band may behave in an eccentric fashion ; it does at feast pay attention to the rules of music in its execution and its playing.—I am, Sir, &c., W. DE BRAY SOMERS, Conductor, Savoy Orpheans. Savoy Hotel, London, W.C. 2.
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