A Tale of Two Jazz Humbugs

“Humbug” is a little word of great utility that has unfortunately passed out of general usage. It means, according to Webster’s Dictionary, “a person who does not live up to his claims; impostor.” While it carries the connotation of deception or trickery, it was more generally applied to what we would today call–with less compactness–a pious fraud; the fellow who claims to have principles, but upon closer examination fails to live up to them… [ read more ]