Jazz Gates are Swinging

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Benjamin Jacobs-Sell.

I’m calling from Huntsville, Alabama.

Hi, Benjamin, what can we do for you?

Well, I was calling in to find out if you knew anything about the usage of the word gates in addressing, you know, like friends or comrades. I traveled with the Lionel Hampton band in the early 60s, and he addressed everybody in the organization individually and collectively by that term. Like, hey, Gates, how are you doing? Whether addressing you one-on-one or addressing the whole band. So I just wondered about where that usage came from.

So, Lionel Hampton, this is the jazz xylophonist?

Yes.

Yeah, classic, legendary. I am amazed that you played with the man.

Yeah, what did you play?

Trombone.

Trombone. I played trombone.

You played all around?

I bet you wailed.

Well, I tried. I did my best. I did my best. I was fortunate enough to work with some of the greatest jazz musicians who were. Lionel Hampton was, you know, crowned an American jazz master. But I also worked with another Hampton, Slade Hampton, for two years, and he was crowned an American jazz master, as was another member of the band, George Coleman. So I was fortunate enough to be in the company of some great jazz musicians.

So all of these guys could be called Gates? And that basically is, what does that mean? Is that like dude or fellow or cool cat?

Well, in my mind, I always try to figure it out myself. But I want to say that my mother, who was from Chicago, and her brother, they were familiar with the usage of the term as just a word of greeting a friend or a comrade. But as to its source, I just tried to reason it out for myself, because the only way I could is that one of the characteristics of good jazz is that it must swing, you know. And that is a characteristic of a gait, that it swings. So I was just wondering if you all had any information on that.

That is what a lot of people say when they think about gait, that a fellow has a gait in jazz. And it’s kind of an old term now. Not many folks use it anymore. But that a fellow who is truly gait in jazz is a fellow who knows how to swing.

And that is absolutely true. Or a lady who knows how to swing. Let’s not be sexist here, right?

Okay.

But there’s another story here, and it goes back to one of the greats. And that’s Louis Armstrong, who was known as Gate Mouth because he had that big old mouth for playing his instrument. And he embraced the term. He loved it. And in one of the books that he wrote, he talks about, he says, when I was a kid, they started calling me Gate Mouth. And then he says, and then they started calling him Gate, short for Gate Mouth. And then he started calling other people Gate, just like they were calling him Gate. And so what would happen was he’d be playing and people would shout at him. They’d be swing at gate, swing at gate. And then he would shout it back at other people, say, you know, to them he’d say swing at gate. And apparently he believed, Louis did, that that’s how it got around, is that from him, gates kind of started and launched. Everyone was calling everyone gate around him, and then it kind of launched from there. And for sure, prior to this kind of early to mid-1930s, gate didn’t really exist. And it kind of seems to have come out of his particular scene.

And there’s another idea here. Some people think, and I don’t know if there’s anything to this, but I’m going to give it to you, Benjamin, just in case you think something about it. There’s an idea that gate became cat. You know how there’s that old slang phrase for someone who’s hip or cool?

Yes, yes, I believe that.

Some people think that that, plus the notion of a tomcat, meaning a sly or a cool character, that’s where we get the cat. Like, oh, that cat, he can really swing. That is just a transformation of the word gate, supposedly, some people think.

Right.

And, yeah, the usage of both those terms is synonymous.

I agree.

They’re very similar, right? And they sound the same.

They sound very similar. And they came on the scene about the same time. So it’s possible. But there’s no proof of it. So that’s what we know.

Thank you.

Good, good. I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Benjamin, thank you so much for calling and sharing your stories. I hope you’ll share some more stories some other time. Give us another call.

Okay.

Well, stay cool, Gate. We appreciate the call.

Okay.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

All right.

Be well.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Tell us about the cool cats you hang with and the language they use, 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org and find a dozen ways to reach us on social media. On our website at waywordradio.org.