Jazz/Jump-what is it??was Dennis Gruenling

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe;
       I think 'Jump' is one of those long abandoned terms like like 'race' and 'sepia' and perhaps, in disco-'seventies' 'laid-back', a useless term that came into use for a while.
       As I understand it, a 'jump band' referred to a smaller combo, from, say five to eight pieces, playing an R'n'B based repertoire, with perhaps a smattering of standard show tunes & pop tunes.
       It was intended, as the name implies, for dancing.
       I have read of Louis Jordans Tympany Five (which if I recall always had more than five) being referred by this term, as well as Joe and Jimmie Liggins bands, Buddy Johnson's Orch., Jay McShanns smaller outfits and so on.
       These bands represent a fair amount of variation between them, but I think they give you a fair indication of what the term was applied to.
        You could easily throw the recordings of Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner and Roy Brown, except these guys were singers rather than band leaders.
        The term seems to have been in use from about the mid-forties to the mid-fifties.
Rick Dempster
Melbourne, Australia