The Doctor Jazz Band is a collection of musicians who like to play jazz music in the traditional style, often referred to as "classic jazz". No, it's not Dixieland. Duke Ellington was once asked if his music was jazz, swing or whatever. He replied that it was "beyond category". A really neat side-step. Because my band has played at the Folk Festival and is featured from time to time at the Folk Club, is it then folk music that we play? This needs side-stepping too. Louis Armstrong was once asked that very question, to which he replied that he'd never heard a horse sing!

Early in the last century, the music played in New Orleans was not "jazz" per se because jazz did not exist. Old New Orleanians referred to the music as New Orleans Music, or even as American Music. The term "jazz" was given to the music of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) in 1917. Oh oh!. Let me explain; the explanation might amuse you. The first white band from New Orleans to play in Chicago, in 1916, was Tom Brown's Band From Dixieland (Brown was a trombonist). The word "jass", having a copulative connotation, was used to smear Brown's band, perhaps by an envious business competitor. Brown used the term as a crowd-catcher and advertised his combo as Brown's Dixieland Jass Band; the crowds came, curious to see what Jass music could be. This band gave way, through the common dissembling of personnel, to the formation of Stein's Dixieland Jass Band; further dissembling (more likely dissention) led to the formation of the ODJB who still kept the term "jass".

Possibly the term derived from the French verb jaser meaning "to jabber"; recall that New Orleans had a very strong French connection. It has been said that New Orleans resisted Americanization until about the 1970s. Another likely explanation is that the word was derived from the term for New Orleans' prostitutes who were called "jezebels", and was applied to the music of the time (what we now call jazz) that was played in Mansions (high-price brothels) and low-class dance halls. It was also played at Society dances and balls. So, though not entirely a musical background for the patrons of Mansions, the intimation of "jezebel music" becoming jez- or jas-music is an attractive idea. Anyway, the name "jass", as applied to the music in Chicago, caught on; it seems folks wanted to see and hear brothel music played, curiosity being what it is. The story, however, unfolds. With the band advertising "Jass Music" it is rumoured that a graffiti artist removed the 'J' from the advertisement thus leading to obvious further drawing power! In 1917singers Al Jolson and Sophie Tucker induced the ODJB to relinquish the Chicago gig and move to Reisenweber's Restaurant in New York City; and contemporaneously the word "jass" was curiously changed. After opening at Reisenweber's, the "J" was restored and the word respelled. The newspapers reported the band's music as "Jas, Jass, Jazz, Jacz and Jaczs." As reported in the Victor Recording Company's catalogue, on the release of the ODJB's first recording with them, "Spell it Jass, Jas, Jaz, or Jazz: nothing can spoil a Jass band".

Doctor Jazz, incidentally, is the title of a well-known classic jazz number from 1926, in which one is exhorted to call: "Hello Central give me Doctor Jazz, He's got what I need, I'll say he has. When the world goes round and I've got those blues, He's the man that gets me both my dancing shoes. "