Abstract

Jazz, That Ubiquitous Spirit!

The article discusses the book "So This Is Jazz!," by Henry O. Osgood. Osgood's definition embraces his own book, which is most concisely described as a small amount of desired information, a greater amount of undesired opinion, and an overabundance of undesirable pepping-up (the effort for color and smartness in the manner is undesirable when it causes a writer to look less steadfastly at the matter and when the result is color and smartness in statements but contradiction between them. This is just verbal trickery and a waste of time: Osgood wants to confound everyone with his cleverness and superior knowledge; and also to show his good sense in a matter in which others are silly prudes or self-righteous hypocrites, the matter of jazzing serious music. For if serious composers have written jazz then writers of jazz may jazz serious music.