Does anyone know the origin of using the word "jam" to mean "get together and play music"?
It developed in the early 1600s when the fine art of wine-making was undergoing a bit of a revolution. Much of Europe had been under prohibition law, first enacted by Queen Elizabeth I in England following a rather rowdy birthday party for the Queen's pet turtle. Historians still believe her hangover was the greatest ever experienced in recorded history. Most European leaders who had been in attendance soon followed suit, having witnessed first hand the dangers of alcohol in the hands of royalty. They felt they should abstain (lest there be a repeat of the Greenwich Shelling Tragedy of 1561, which you should have learned about in high school) and felt that it would be unfair if their peasant subjects continued to drink while the nobility teetotaled. It would be unseemly for the low-born to enjoy a privilege denied to their betters! (Please note that this was their sentiment, not mine.)
So anyway, Prohibiton had recently ended and the industry was finally innovating again, and there were even annual international conventions for vintners across Europe
and Asia. European winemakers were eager to learn from their Asian counterparts since they had not suffered under any sort of prohibition and had been developing new techniques for the last several decades.
The 1618 Celebration of Wine, held in Prague, was especially well attended. Vintners, viticulturalists, coopers, nobility, microbrewers (then known as "les brasseurs petites") and drunkards all flocked to this particular event because a rumour had spread: the "Son of Dionysus" (hereafter referred to as just "Dionysus, for the sake of brevity) would be in attendance. (This was merely a monicker given to the secretive man. Despite developing the legendary Italian drink "Il Cacciavite", still renowned worldwide today, nobody knew his real name or background. Undoubtedly this sense of mystery only fuelled his fame and notoriety. He even had a small cult following that all but worshipped him.) It was whispered that Dionysus would be delivering a lecture on some new techniques. More importantly, people said that he would have a new consumable available to sample.
It is unclear what actually transpired at the 1618 Celebration. Historians only agree on two things: nearly all in attendance (
including historians) were inebriated pretty much from start to finish, and at least two men were
thrown out of a window. It was a 70 foot drop, but both survived. Due to the mass drunkenness, it is unknown how they avoided death. There were few witnesses, let alone any who were reliable.
The events
during the event are not important to the question at hand. After the festival had ended, the numerous guests had to leave. However, their egress was made difficult by two factors: the sheer size of the crowd, all attempting to move past each other; and the fact that many of the draft animals were somehow also intoxicated. The wagons could not move.
It took 2 weeks for the crowd to properly disperse. Luckily, people had nourishment in the form of grape preserves in jars. Many historians believe that this preserved product was the work of Dionysus, despite it not being a potable.
But how to pass the time when you are stuck in a foreign place? Of course, some simply continued drinking. Others turned to more carnal pursuits. (It was near the end of this congestion, in early June, that
Cyrano de Bergerac was conceived. He would be born about 9 months later on 6 March 1619. His conception is actually featured as the opening aria of the 1913 opera
Cyrano, which was based on Edmond Rostand's play about Cyrano's life. The aria remains an incredibly popular performance piece for sopranos around the world.)
But there happened to be several groups of travelling musicians. Historians believe that the first to start the music was a quartet of German musicians who had been planning to go to Bremen. Others soon joined them. Remember that these people had come from all across the continent, so it was rare for them to get together. People from many different musical backgrounds played together in this unprecedented, impromptu gathering. In fact, many who joined were not musicians at all. They were typically engaged in more prosaic activities -- agriculture, woodworking, debauchery.
It was a fortnight of sweet songs, where wealth and status were set aside and only your volume and sincerity mattered. The whole thing was so entertaining that the revellers did it again at the 1619 Festival of Wine, and it became a regular feature of all subsequent festivals.
Although records confirm that listeners enjoyed these performances overall, it was not all euphonious. This should be unsurprising given the unfamiliarity of the musicians with one another, the presence of numerous amateurs, and the blood alcohol content of all those involved. Often, a group of musicians would fall off the rhythm of the rest of the crowd. Sometimes it would actually work out, but often it did not. When it happened, people would laugh and say "they're jamming the beat!" Note that the primary definition of "jam" at this point in history was "to interfere with".
Indeed, different musicians would "jam the beat" many times in each song, but it would always work out in the end. Eventually, these casual assemblies would become known as "jam sessions".
Incidentally, these events also give us two other uses of the word "jam". First: the sweet grape preserves that fed the masses became a popular food item at the festival, and its association with that first jam session of 1918 gave it it's name: "grape jam". (The preserves were typically served with a hypogaeac oleo spread atop a slab of heated dough.) Granted, some etymologists believe that the name is derived from a less direct route. Since the initial consumers of the jelly did not know how it was made, they had to improvise and experiment until finding a suitable process. Of course, improvisation was now colloquially known as "jamming"!
Second: all the travellers to these festivals had difficulty leaving when the events finished. Though the troubles were small compared to the 1618 congestion, they would occur annually anyway. Eventually, the phenomenon came to be known as a "traffic jam", because drivers would have to be creative in finding ways out of the blockage.
Anyway, sorry for rambling on. I just find history so interesting.
Edit: spelling, adding a few details.
