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jeanette@pharm.medsch.ucla.edu (Jeanette Griscavage) queries:
>Where did the term JAZZ come from? Anyone out there know?
 
The quick answer is No, nobody knows.
In more detail, here are excerpts from what the Oxford English
Dictionary has to say:
 
Origin unknown: see quots. for some of the many suggested
derivations. Cf. jazzbo.
 
Connection with Amer. Eng. jasm `energy, enthusiasm' (see Mathews
Dict. Amer. s.v.) cannot be demonstrated.
 
1917 Sun (N.Y.) 5 Aug. iii. 3/6 Variously spelled Jas, Jass, Jaz,
Jazz, Jasz and Jascz. The word is African in origin. It is common
on the Gold Coast of Africa and in the hinterland of Cape Coast Castle.
 
1925 Amer. Mercury Sept. 7 According to tradition, jazz has taken
its name from Jasbo Brown, an itinerant Negro player along the
Mississippi, and later, in Chicago cabarets.
 
1934 S. R. Nelson All about Jazz i. 23 It has
been suggested that jas, jass, jaz, jazz, jasz, or jascz were
originally part of the patois of the Negro in his native Africa.
 
1937 Amer. Speech XII. 180 The word `Jass' was a verb of
the negro patois meaning `to excite' with an erotic and rhythmic
connotation. Later becoming pronounced `Jazz', it was used attributively
to describe bands which by the intensity of their rhythm produced
excitement.
 
1950 N.Y. Times 30 June 21 Dr. Bender..was stumped
by the word `jazz'. In..three years..he..tracked it to the West
Coast of Africa, the contact point for the slave trade with colonial
America. He said that the word meant `hurry up' in the native
tongue, and was first applied in the Creole dialect to mean `speed
up' in the syncopated music in New Orleans.
 
1952 B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. viii. 82 When..Brown's band
came to Chicago, directly from New Orleans, the word `jass' had
a semi-sordid sexual connotation. Chicago Musicians Union
officials..thought that labeling this group a jass or jazz band
would be a very successful smear. But..the term caught on, and
Brown's Dixieland Band became Brown's Dixieland Jass Band.
 
1924 Etude Sept. 595/3 If the truth were known about the origin
of the word `Jazz' it would never be mentioned in polite society...
The vulgar word `Jazz' was in general currency in those dance
halls thirty years or more ago.
 
1927 Jrnl. Abnormal & Social Psychol. XXII. i. 14 The word jazz...
Used both as a verb and as a noun to denote the sex act,..has long
been common vulgarity among Negroes in the South, and it is very
likely from this usage that the term `jazz music' was derived.
 
1968 B. Foster Changing Eng. Lang. ii. 114 The original verb `jazz'
denoting the human male's most important generic activity (itself
probably an African word).
 
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from the Dictionary of Word Origins:
 
Some students of the modern dance declare that this an African word
meaning hurry brought into English through the Creole. The more likely
origin is in the name of the man that, down in Vicksburg around 1910,
became world-famous through the song asking everyone to "come and an'
hear Alexander's Ragtime Band." Alexander's first name was Charles,
always abbreviated Chas and pronounced Chazz; at the "hot" moments they
called "Come on, Jazz !" whence, jazz music. Other sources have also
been suggested: Arab "jazib", one that allures; Hindi: "jazba", ardent
desire (English: "jazzbo"); and an African "jaiza", rumble of distant
drums.