Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a flighty girl or young woman, usu. middle-class, in her late teens or very early 20s, who sported short, bobbed hair, lipstick, skimpy dresses and generally led a lifestyle as far as possible removed from that of her parents.

1919		Corpus Christi Caller (TX) 10 July 3/5: [advt for Columbia Records] That ‘Jazz Baby’ Just Has to Have Jazz.
1919		Jim Europe’s 369th Infantry ‘Hell Fighters’ Band Mar. [song title] Jazz Baby.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Jelly Bean’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 214: Marylyn and Joe followed, singing a drowsy song, about a Jazz baby.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 198: [running head] No Rattle For His Jazz Baby.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 151: I left the land of canned goods [...] automobiles, jazz babies, moonshine.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1966		(ref. to 1921) J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 151: On the night of June 8, 1921, a popular family ‘beer house’ [...] in Campbell Street, Surry Hills, was crowded with its usual clientele of spielers, gamblers, spivs, ‘jazz babies’ and general crooks.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 69: Because of her fondness for nightlife, jazz, and dancing, she was also called a jazz baby, whoopee mama, or hot mama.

see separate entries.

(UK drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

2022

Twitter 14 Oct. 🌐 I had to drive through a scaffolders yard at 630 this morning with the air filled with the smell of jazz-fags.

(Aus.) a machine gun.

1968

J. Alard He Who Shoots Last 60: ‘Dat jazz gun ain’t wore out ya knows, Wrecker,’ said Lefty, indicating the hardware in Roth’s hands.

(US) a brothel.

1928

R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 181: This burg has walls around it so thick that the gals could have their jazz-houses on top – not a bad idea at all: if a tight Oscar held out on ’em, they could jes’ let him out on the wrong side o’ the wall.

(US black) a brothel.

1986–7

Maledicta IX 148: There are black terms sugar hill and jazz joint [...] (most now obsolescent or obsolete).

an ‘adult’ pornographic magazine.

1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: art pamphlet n. A jazz mag; one handed reading material.
2011		Times Mag. 30 Apr. 4/2: I got my sex education from schoolyard chats, text books, the odd jazz mag.
2018		Guardian CiF 12 Jan. 🌐 Was this article by the Nick Coleman who wrote for Wire when it was a jazz mag? [...] I think you'll find it was Razzle that was a jazz mag.
2020		‘List of Viz comic strips’ in wikipedia 🌐 Another example is when he exposes a resident's arrival of brown-enveloped "jazz mags" to the whole street.

(Aus.) to have sexual intercourse.

1983

J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 68: He smoothly moved on Ronnie the Ripper and the next thing they were jazz waltzing.

(orig. US) that sort of thing, usu. following a list of proper nouns ...and all that jazz.

1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 227: I’m a sucker for tradition, Captain. You know, ‘Marines never say die,’ and all that jazz.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 27: All the ancient arts of womanhood and all that jazz.
1967		(con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 242: I thought you and Paige were buddies. Old China sailors, shipmates, all that jazz.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 161: Making the band laugh and all that jazz.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 262: Happily babbling about God being dead and all that jazz.
1977		(con. 1950s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 44: ‘Your eyes are so beautiful and blue’, and all that jazz.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 159: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Get off my dick. Talkin out your neck. Talkin all that jazz.

(US) imperfect but acceptably so, in musical contexts, improvised.

1952		Doane Owl (Crete, NE) 13 Oct.2/4: So Freshmen get on the stick, Sophomores get on the ball, Juniors knock it in the head and Seniors get close enough for jazz.
1958		Dly Illini (Urbana, IL) 30 Sept. 7/5: S[ax] M[an]: My chic [sic] — she’s all over trying to find look alikes. First she’s in the women’s shirts — then the men’s. You know, she can’t find anything close enough for jazz.
1968		D. Gillespie q. in Amer. Music Rev. Spring (2013) 2/1: Later while [Vi Redd] warmed up with pianist Mike Lonmgo, Dizzy interjected, ‘That’s close enough to jazz,’ convulsing the audience.
1984		Jazz Forum 86-91 59: ‘Close Enough for Jazz’ a phrase made famous originally by Dizzy Gillespie.
1991		S. Allen Murder in Manhattan 87: [Helped] by my ever-present pocket tape recorder and, rather to my surprise, got them down — or close enough for jazz.
1998		L. Phair Last Rock Star Book 121: I’d tune her guitar [...] I’d get it approximately right, hand the guitar over, and then go, [...] ‘Close enough for jazz [...] Close enough for government work’.
2000		K. Roberts Episodes of a Writer’s Life 73: [H]ere she is, finally; not exactly what I had in mind perhaps, but close enough for jazz.
2009		Koritz & Sanchez Civic Engagement 102: [W]e have a standard sarcastic phrase to describe the situation: ‘Close enough for jazz.’ Translation: when it comes to New Orleans, substandard is all we're ever going to get.
2021		V.L. Thompson Cowboys Like Us [ebook] ‘Close enough for jazz. Ive never heard that before.’ [...] ‘It’s sokmething jazz musicians say, meaning that there’s a lot of improv going on when they perform.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 37: Galante smiled. ‘See that,’ he said. ‘What I said.’ ‘Close enough for jazz,’ Greenblatt said.