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A rent party (sometimes called a house party
House party

File:House party in Denver Colorado.JPGMainly in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United States and Canada the term house party refers, typically, to a type of party where large groups of people, often high school or college students, but occasionally adults too, gather at a the house or apartment of the party's host....
) is a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music. The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
 states that the term skiffle means "rent party", indicating the informality of the occasion. Thus, the word became associated with informal music.






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A rent party (sometimes called a house party
House party

File:House party in Denver Colorado.JPGMainly in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United States and Canada the term house party refers, typically, to a type of party where large groups of people, often high school or college students, but occasionally adults too, gather at a the house or apartment of the party's host....
) is a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music. The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
 states that the term skiffle means "rent party", indicating the informality of the occasion. Thus, the word became associated with informal music. However, many notable jazz musicians are associated with rent parties, including pianist
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
s Speckled Red
Speckled Red

Speckled Red was born Rufus Perryman in Monroe, Louisiana. He was an American blues and boogie woogie pianist and singer most noted for his recordings of "The Dirty Dozens", legendary exchanges of insults and vulgar remarks that have long been a part of African-American folklore....
, James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson

James Price Johnson [A.K.A. "Jimmy Johnson"] was an African-American pianist and composer. With Luckey Roberts, Johnson was one of the originators of the Stride piano style of jazz piano playing....
 and Fats Waller
Fats Waller

Fats Waller was an United States Jazz piano, organ , composer and comedy entertainer....
, although rent parties also featured bands as well. The OED also gives boogie as a term for rent party.

Rent parties were often the location of so-called cutting contest
Cutting contest

Cutting contests were a form of musical battles between various stride piano players of between the 1920s and 1940s. The contests were usually held at "rent party" in the homes of locals of Harlem, in which entrance money was used to pay off the rent....
s, which involves jazz pianists taking turns at the piano, attempting to out-do each other.