Mezz Mezzrow: The Jazz Clarinetist Who Became Marijuana's Most Famous Dealer

The relationship between jazz and marijuana runs deeper than the story of Louis Armstrong being smuggled across borders by a famous dealer named Mezz Mezzrow. This piece explores Mezzrow's unlikely background, his place in the Harlem jazz scene, and how his nickname turned into slang for high-quality marijuana.

■ Mezz Mezzrow's Background
- Born and raised in Chicago before moving to Harlem's Black community and joining the jazz scene
- Worked as a clarinetist, recording alongside Sidney Bechet and Benny Carter
- Moved in the same circles as Louis Armstrong and voluntarily identified as Black during the Jim Crow era, registered as such on his draft card

■ Marijuana and the Jazz World
- His reputation for supplying top-grade marijuana and the titles he earned within that community
- How "Mezz" became a synonym for quality marijuana in period slang
- An example of the term appearing in one of the era's best-known marijuana songs

If you are interested in jazz history, music culture, or the social history of marijuana, this offers a compact look at a figure who links all three. It helps you see how slang, race, and the music scene of the time intersected.