Musician obtains novel about origin of jazz (8)
I believe the answer is:
banjoist
'musician' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'obtains novel about origin of jazz' is the wordplay.
'novel' indicates anagramming the letters (letters in a new or novel order).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'origin of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'jazz' is 'j'.
'obtains' anagrammed gives 'banoist'.
'banoist' going around 'j' is 'BANJOIST'.
(Other definitions for banjoist that I've seen before include "plucky performer" , "plucky player" , "Player of stringed instrument" , "Musician" .)