JD Klatt Music
Berklee College of Music Jazz Slang Dictionary, circa 1980.
This was given to me by some jazz players I was hanging with at the time. Enjoy.
CHOPS - derived from "choppers" which refers to "jaws" or "lips". Although "chops" is used mostly to describe a brass player with a good emboucher, its use has grwon to point of describing anyone that is good at anything.
Example: "Bobby Orr has good hockey chops."
HEAVY - original meaning described weight ("That truck that just fell on me is really heavy"). It can also describe an individual or group that is really exceptional.
Example: "Dizzy Gillespie is really heavy!"
It can also describe the seriousness of a situation
Example: "I sure was getting some heavy vibes from that chick" (see "vibes" and "chick")
VIBES - can be short for "vibraphone" or "vibrations", the latter used to describe the feeling you get when you know someone is either for you or against you without a word being spoken.
Example: "bad vibes" or "good vibes".
LAME - normally applies to a person (or animal) with a leg injury and resulting mobility problems. The musical equivalent is a person (or animal) who can't play his or her horn very well.
Low Brass Players Creed warning: F-Bomb city.
SLAM - something you usually do to a door; however, in conversation it can be construed as "intense criticism".
Example: "Wow! You sure slammed me with that insult!"
LAID-BACK - a cliche derived from an expression used to describe something you do in a hammock or easychair. In jazz it can mean "being a little behind the beat". Also this expression can refer to a type of mellowness one experiences from natural or possibly artificial means.
HAPPENING -original meanings are too numerous to mention: however in jazz it is an adjective used to describe someone's exceptional ability.
Example: "Jack's chops are really happening!"
SPACED OUT -can refer to a types of music as well as a type of person. Both types are usually in an orbit somewhere between Jupiter and Pluto.
CHART - in hospitals it's what is posted at the foot of the bed: in jazz, it's where the sharps, flats, and changes are found. (see "changes").
CHANGES - chord symbols (see "chord symbols")
CHORD SYMBOLS - changes
AXE used by lumberjacks to topple trees: in jazz it's a very old expression used as a substitute for 'horn' or other musical instrument. Example: "Would I like to sit in? Sure! let me go get my AXE, man!"
JUICED drunk; also: tanked, trashed, blitzed, bagged, bombed, boozed, (see 'wasted')
QUE PASA Spanish for "what's happening?" This is a very hip expression (see 'hip').
HIP Anatomy : a bone just below the waist that old people break when falling down stairs.
Jazz: Something good. . Example: "that solo was really hip!" (in the 1950's this was known as 'hep').
HANG monkyes do this from grape vines or tree limbs. Jazz musicians do this with each other when they are just goofing around, listening to records, watching TV, or just shooting the bull (see 'shooting the bull').
SHOOTING THE BULL does not mean mortally wounding a large male cow with a shotgun. it simply is slang for having a casual conversation with someone.
WHERE YOU'RE (I'M) COMING FROM reather than meaning a point of origination, it represents someone's outlook, philosophy, or idea about a certain topic. Example: I can really relate to where you're coming from
BREAD money Example: "how much bread does this gig pay?" (see 'gig').
GIG performance, concert, job, etc.
HOT-DOG in addition to something you eat, it can also refer to a musician who plays every hot jazz lick he knows (as rapidly as possible) while in the presence of other jazz musicians.
GRANDSTANDING what a 'hot-dog' does.
WASTED really tired, or really drunk.
SCUFFLING making a lot of mistakes. Example: "He was really scuffling with the changes".
CLAM a very noticeable mistake, sometimes referred to as a 'clinker'.
GAS many meanings: a) something you put in your car, b) something you get after eating tacos, etc. In jazz , a very complimentary term. Example: "that chart is really a gas!"
PAD apartment, house, etc.
DIG like, approve, etc.
WHEELS a car
CHICK girlfriend, or any female.
DRAG bad, negative, or a guy in women's clothing
***********
To be completely fluent in this language, you must begin each sentence with the work "like," and end each sentence with the word "man". Example, "Like, I really dig the changes in that chart, ......man.
Summary: A standard sentence used by a jazz musician in everyday conversation:
"Like, I was really scuffling with the changes on last night's gig, and my chops were definitely not happening, but the charts were really lame so it didn't matter: however the axe I was playing got smashed by the chick singer when she got juiced and fell on the trumpet section, needless to say, she was really spaced-out, and so was the piano player who I used to hang with in college where we led a very laid-back existence and made good bread playing in polka bands where we got wasted and did a lot of grandstanding during the breaks where we also got gas from eating garbage food before going back to my chick's pad in my new wheels only to hear her say, "que pasa? and really slam us for being blitzed, man."
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