Swing

[Serial_Apologist]

Bartok Swings! Well I guess he never had to make a connection before heading to record with a drunk bass player and a strung out drummer...

Do he swing? Do anything.

BN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhErDZKOBo

[Quarky]

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

listening just now to Humph's band on JRR struck by how much Pete Blannin on bass is leading the swing ... a thought that also occurred listening to Mr heath in the MJQ above and El Senor's referencing of Mr Chambers in the MD 5.1

interesting to see Ligetti mentioned; some years back visited York Univ Music Dept with sprog to see if she wanted to go ..... excellent place and treated us to a sample classroom session on the drumming of the rainforest people and Ligetti's approach .... much discussion of Chaos and Strange Attractors in the rainforest percussion ...sometimes i think you can understand timing in jazz as somewhere between that formal opposition of 54/4 to 12/8 with individuals and ensembles developing their own feel just as the rainforest people do ... so swing is 'random' but defined by a Strange Attractor ... too far off that and you drop out ... i am sure that helps everyone and i am also befuddled but hell it is Saturday ...

yep Oddball more hot air

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

BIG fan of Bartok... the string quartets are fascinating. Endlessly.

Just bought a 100 WATT Sony Stereo top range HIFI plus BIG SPEAKERS in the Charwity Shop for 30 smackers...hey, Christmas is early.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... don't wake the ducks!!!!!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Ducks never sleep...well, not when there's Archie Shepp blasting thro the new floor speakers at 70watt.

BN.

Good JRR today? Or maybe its me mellowing over the cooking brandy....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

both no doubt and would you mind turning the Archie Shepp up [Momma Too Tight?]

[Serial_Apologist]

[Momma Too Tight?]

Ah yes - I remember that now: Archie out on a James Brown spree.

[Anna]

I simply thought it don't mean a thing, if you ain't ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg

[burning dog]

[burning dog]

[Byas'd Opinion]

Didn't Wynton Marsalis and Christian Scott have an online falling out about the importance of swing in jazz? Marsalis slagged off Scott's band for not swinging, and Scott responded that jazz didn't have to swing because the first generation of jazz musicians didn't play in a swinging style:

"I was basically like, if what you're saying is true, then Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, all those guys aren't jazz because they predate swing," Scott said. "All the [stuff] that they were doing in New Orleans is not jazz then, technically, if what he's saying is right."

I can't find the original article, but it's referred to here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...0,426578.story

[Byas'd Opinion]

The Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute's definition of swing, from their Grade Five "What is Jazz?" course, can be found here: http://www.jazzinamerica.org/LessonPlan/5/1/247

They certainly think that jazz doesn't need to swing, suggesting Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" is an example of "jazz that doesn't swing...but is still great jazz".

[John Wright]

I'm intrigued by the fact that (I think) all the examples of 'swing' music offred on this sthread are some decades after the term 'swing' came into common use, mid 1930's.

The original question was what do we understand by this term swing? So do some contributors here not understand what swing was in the 1930s?

Is swing something very different today?

I offer this example of swing from 1937, I think it presents very much what WAS swing in Britain and USA in that year; a fine American tune, a relaxed music arrangement, a big-sized music ensemble, a very talented singer who can bend the notes/tune to great affect, some very talented instrumental soloists who can jazz things up, and the recording is fit for purpose which, then, was music to dance to.

http://www.r2ok.co.uk/swinghigh3.mp3

So if THAT is swing, aren't some of the modern examples on this thread something else?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I did make the point above that its often contextual. As for historical, well the Basie band "swung" very differently from say, The Hot Club of France of the same era.


Who often...chugged.
BN.