Rent party - Definition and Overview

For a rent party (sometimes called a house party or house-rent party), tenants hire a musician or band to play for a party and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music.

The Oxford English Dictionary 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 pianists Speckled Red, James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, although rent parties also featured bands as well. The OED also gives boogie as a term for rent party.