All that jazz

Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei.

Neil And I’m Neil.

Feifei And Neil -we have a musical expression… Do you like rock music?

Neil Rock. Yeah I love it.

Feifei Really?

Neil When I was younger I was in a rock band - we had it all: long hair, loud guitars, even louder drums, leather… all that jazz!

Feifei Jazz? Hang on, was it a jazz or a rock band?!

Neil Aha - very funny - ‘all that jazz’ is our phrase today. And it has nothing to do with jazz.

Feifei Indeed, it simply means ‘and so on’, or ‘and other similar things’.

Neil You often use it after listing things. For example: I love Christmas dinner - you’ve got turkey, Brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, gravy, all that jazz. It’s just great.

Feifei You’re not wrong. I love all that jazz too. And now you’ve made my mouth water, so let’s take a break and listen to these examples.

Examples I had a super lazy weekend. I woke up late, got some coffee, went for a walk, watched a couple of movies, all that jazz. It was great.

I don’t read celebrity gossip. You know: who’s going out with who, who got plastic surgery, all that jazz. I’m just not interested!

Feifei It’s often used - in a list of unpleasant or boring things.

Neil For example: This morning I cleaned the whole house - washing, scrubbing, vacuuming, all that jazz!

Feifei Yes, by using “jazz” to describe dull things, it’s ironic and brings some humour.

Neil It does, Feifei. Especially when we compare it with the phrase to “jazz up”. You can ‘jazz up an outfit’ or ‘jazz up a meal’, for example - which means to make something more interesting and even glamorous.

Feifei Before we go, we should of course mention the phrase is also the name of a song from the 1975 Broadway musical, Chicago. Fancy singing it for us, Neil?

Neil I really couldn’t. After all, I was in a rock band. Not a jazz band! What about you, Feifei?

Feifei Maybe next time. I can’t remember the words!

Neil Excuses, excuses! Bye for now.

Feifei Bye.