Etymology of "Ko-Ko"

[JSngry]

This has beguiled me for a long time. I know Duke's piece was about Congo Square, but that doesn't explain the meaning of the actual word. And what about Bird's reworking of "Cherokee"? Anybody know how it came to be named that?

The word seems to pop up occasionally, either straight or varied, in old blues songs, so it must have been in the vernacular. Is it a respelling of "cocoa" or is it a derivation of something African (grasping at straws here...)?

Of course, there's Kokomo, Indiana, but I always assumed (incorrectly?) that that was a Native American thing.

Anybody have any insight?

Thanks in advance.

[Joe]

Ko-ko or koko may indeed by a shortened form of Kokomo which had at least a couple of colloquial meanings in the first half of the 20th Century:

1. cocaine

2. any fictional "hick" town, i.e., Dogpatch

"Koko" may also refer to one's coconut or one's head.

Or, like konk or Hadacol, it could refer to a popular product of the time...

Edited June 23, 2003 by Joe

[Jazzmoose]

Sounds like a question for Cecil at The Straight Dope to me!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Ko-Ko was the name of the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan, set in Japan. Charlie Parker was hip to the fact that the native Americans were descendents from Asians - ergo, the Cherokee/Ko-Ko connection.

Or at least that's how Jon Hendricks tells it. Something like that.

Mike

[brownie]

From a story in today's New York Times on Turkey fighting to save a

national delicacy 'kokorec' (lamb intestines sandwiches) from European

Union food regulations in case Turkey is admitted to the EU:

As the fear spread, a Turkish singer named Mirkelam composed a song about the

sandwich in which the European Union was cast as an overbearing parent coming

between two lovers. It became a hit.

Kokorec, ko-ko-ko

Kokorec, ko-ko-ko

Wonder how Bird would have played that one...

[jpmosu]

Ko-Ko was the name of the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan, set in Japan. Charlie Parker was hip to the fact that the native Americans were descendents from Asians - ergo, the Cherokee/Ko-Ko connection.

Or at least that's how Jon Hendricks tells it. Something like that.

Mike

This is fascinating to me, Mike.

What is the source of the Hendricks quote? I'd love to read more about this!

Thanks in advance,

john

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I heard it on a radio interview broadcast on WBGO-FM around 1985. I thought it might have been the Ben Sidran "Sidran On Record" show from 11/85 but he published that in "Talking Jazz" and it doesn't mention this. There must have been another one. He also talked a lot about his lyrics to "Joy Spring" - recently recorded on the Manhattan Transfer "Vocalese" album.

Mike

[Dmitry]

Or it can be just a variation of a then popular name.

[Guest ariceffron]

was cocaine availble in the 40s? if so were as many people doin it as in the 70s

[maren]

Duke Ellington's spoken introduction at Carnegie Hall, Jan. 1943: "Ko-Ko is a little descriptive scene of the phase that inspired jazz. I think it was in New Orleans, and the place called Congo Square, where the slaves used to gather and do native and sensuous dances, religious dances, and Ko-Ko is a little descriptive scene."

Haven't yet found any African language citations. But: Kokomo, Indiana was named after a chief of the Miami ("of Ohio") people, himself called Ko Ko Mo, which means "black walnut." Then there was KoKo the Clown, a Max Fleischer-drawn "sibling" of Betty Boop, in the 20s.

But then, I started thinking of all the Ellington word-play titles (Snibor, Smada, etc.) -- is Ko-Ko also a retrograde of "OK, OK!" ???

So I googled in "Snibor" and landed HERE, where Hans-Joachim Schmidt has an interesting discussion of titles spelled backwards and musical themes played in retrograde:

"Tonk can be read as Knot... Ellington has: Madame Zajj (Jazz), Klop (Polka), Knuf, Ortseam, Oclupaca. Gillespie: Emanon. Navarro: Eb Pob. Monk: Eronel. Benny Carter: Eelibuj Blues. Thad Jones: Evol Deklaw Ni... Basie used it very appropriately to settle a quarrel: 'I Ain't Mad At You - You Ain't Mad At Me' (Up: F Bb D F Bb; down: Bb F D Bb F). "

Edited June 27, 2003 by maren

[alankin]

Actually, after late-night gigs, Duke used to relax over a nice drink of hot cocoa. This mispelling to "Ko-Ko" resulted from an error by the copywrite office.