[disgruntleddave]

Does it irk you when people use this phrase? (usually unrelated to jazz)

I know it irks me a little bit. Stupid popular movie. It might as well be "and all that everything" because jazz is so diverse and there's so much of it. But I'm probably missing the point.

 

[LuisR]

Does it bother you when people say, "let's jazz it up a little bit" too?

 

[disgruntleddave]

I've never heard people say that except in a jazz group when we're about to play jazz.

 

[CooolJazzz]

I'm rather fond of..."Close enough for Jazz and government work".

 

[belliott]

I'm rather fond of..."Close enough for Jazz and government work".

+1 on that.

 

[Jazztenor87]

I'm rather fond of..."Close enough for Jazz and government work".

Ha!

 

[CooolJazzz]

I'm rather fond of..."Close enough for Jazz and government work".

Funny thing is...when I first heard that phrase and started using it myself...I was being paid to play jazz as a government employee. :mrgreen:

 

[bandmommy]

I hate to say it, but that phrase was being used YEARS before the movie ever came out.
I"m nearly 50 and my Grandmother used to say it when I was a little girl.
You may in fact be missing the point...

 

[stradivarius151]

It doesn't bother me, rather makes me think of jazz in the rare event that I wasn't already.

 

[cmason63]

My pet peeve is the term "jazzers". Never quite liked that. Always sounded a bit ignorant by those who never really investigated the music, much less learned it. Not a slam on the people, as my high school band director said that all the time, and I respect him immensely. Just could never get my arms around that one.

 

[LuisR]

I agree ^

 

[hakukani]

All That Jazz is a great movie. So is Chicago. Bob Fosse was a Genius.

It doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Enviroguy]

The movies was strange and macabre.

And I've always figured that the term "jazz" is very broad and can apply to any music, art or anything that is rich, complex and uniquely unbridled and even undefined. So I believe those who claim to own the word are in direct conflict with the true meaning. But using the term to describe undefined details sounds perfectly fitting to me.

Of course, having a degree in chemistry causes me to give the term "organic" a very specific meaning. So I have to overcome my educational hangups as well when I go to by butter and milk. :bluewink:

 

[Jazz Is All]

I'm rather fond of..."Close enough for Jazz and government work".

I had a building contractor friend who used that expession, "It's close enough for Jazz," all the time. It always rubbed me the wrong way because it seemed to imply that playing jazz wasn't any more difficult, complex, intellectual or skilled an activity than plumbing a toilet, sweating copper pipe, roto-hammering a cement floor or framing a house.

As to "Government Work", that was the term commonly used in printshops and newspaper composing rooms to refer to any freebie jobs (personal or freelance) you did using company equipment, materials and time. Typesetting, copy camera work, photo separations, layout and paste up--you name it, guys were doing it.

 

[hakukani]

The movies was strange and macabre.

Yes, the movie (All That Jazz) was definitely strange. Not sure about macabre. It was a musical/autobiography inspired by Fosse's own life and was really a musical version of Frederico Fellini's 8 1/2.

 

[CiaranAudio]

The phrase "and all that jazz" doesn't come close to how noses "run" and feet "smell."

That RGMG.

 

[Jazz Is All]

My pet peeve is the term "jazzers". Never quite liked that.

I have to agree that it sounds odd and somehow negative to me, especially since it mostly came about as an extension of adding the suffix er to rock as the shorter and more common name for a musician of that genre. Instead of rock musician we got rocker, which was followed with punk rocker, rapper and hip-hopper until it became such a natural transformation that jazzer was born. However, it seems to only lend itself to single syllable names, which is why it's doubtful there will be any classicalers although Bluesers and R&Bers may not be long in coming. However, since Folkie already exists as a short form maybe we won't have to suffer Folkers.

 

[CooolJazzz]

Hmmm...
"Jazzer" was the first screen name I used when I logged onto the internet for the first time in the early-mid 90's...but I've identified with the term since the 70's when a friend from one of the Army bands I was in did a charcoal sketch of me and titled it "Jazzer". I took it as a compliment...and still do.

I think we, as jazz musicians, sometimes take ourselves a little too seriously...and tend to be overly defensive about trivial things like how the word "jazz" and its derivative phrases are used in conversation. The word existed before the music did. We merely adopted it, and ultimately took ownership of it...yet even among ourselves, it's almost impossible to reach a consensus about the definition of "jazz". That's because the word means so many different things to so many different people.

I love jazz...I consider myself a jazz musician...a "jazzer"...(as well as a classically trained musician)...but I also don't take myself (or my chosen preferences in music) so seriously that I would be bothered by any of the phrases mentioned here. It seems a little silly.

 

[jrvinson45]

opcorn:

 

[themacintrasher]

I hate that phrase. I also (seriously) make it a point to say saxophone rather than sax as most people say.