Theories on Rhythm

I have a few theories about rhythm. When we talk about swing rhythm, there's the general idea, but we can get really specific, and then even precise to the individual. The way Jelly Roll Morton swings is different from the way Kenny Kirkland swings, which is different from the way Wynton Kelly swings, etc....But in the overall sense, swing made a big change from the Swing Era into the Bebop Era. My theory is that it mostly had to do with tempo.

Dotted Eighth Sixteenth

The Swing Bands played medium bounces for dancers. Swing eighth notes were actually oftentimes written as Dotted eighth Sixteenths, which is closer to the jerky jaggedness of the earlier swing. Moving into the late 30's and early 40's, The Beboppers like Charlie Parker took the meaning of fast to new heights; they played Cherokee at tempos of Quarter note= 400! So they wanted to swing in a more streamlined manner, unencumbered by swing that could be too rickety. Hence, they smoothed out their eighth notes. Consequently, when they went back to playing slower tempos, they kept the smoothness.

Sometimes you will see swing notated as above, as a quarter and eighth triplet. And then some have talked about more modern swing as being eighth notes fairly straight with an accent or stress on the second eighth note. This can be used as a teaching tool, especially for folks who haven't heard much music with a swing feel. However, this is where it gets frustrating as an jazz educator, because I don't believe that you can  teach a student how to swing if they don't listen to jazz! Swing rhythm is more than just "put a stress on the second eighth note." There's a whole rhythmic vocabulary that you hear from players who have digested a great number of jazz albums.

Listening to this album and many others might shed some light on the subject....

I don't believe that you "have it or you don't" as some might assume; I believe you can be taught to swing with a combination of listening and guidance. But I believe that the biggest problem facing today's jazz student is that they don't hear jazz in any form on a regular basis. Many students come right from high school stage band into being a jazz major in college, without having any concept of jazz beyond a fun, cool diversion from Concert Band. The great jazz musicians, even the moderately good ones, have listened and absorbed a lot of recorded music, and probably seen a lot of live jazz as well. I know some musicians who listen to recordings a lot more than they practice their instrument. (That might be a clue.)

This brings me to my next theory, which regards Quarter Notes. I've noticed that some of the drum students at PSU will play only quarter notes on the ride cymbal. I've heard older cats do that, but in this case, it never really felt good, so I told some of the students that I didn't think they should only play quarter notes on the ride cymbal, that they should "keep the ride cymbal dancing."

"Yes, but our teacher, Alan Jones, told us to do that."

OK, I guess I didn't want to contradict Alan Jones, who is a great drummer and also a very dedicated and experienced educator. However, I kept this in the back of my mind.

Mel Brown

And then recently, during one of the late night jam sessions I hosted at Ivories, the great Mel Brown came in to the club, and I begged him to sit in on drums. As he played, I watched and listened. At one point, I noticed that he was only playing quarter notes on the ride cymbal. But it sounded amazing! Why did it sound so good when he did it and not when the students did it?

I called this guy to make the gig, but he was always late!

My theory is this, and it's somewhat derived from an idea that drummer Lenny White talked about (which he referred to as the Moveable One.):In order to play quarter notes on the ride cymbal and make it sound "good", you have to understand how it lays with everything else that's going on around it. It's not metronomic, per se, it's quarter notes with other rhythms implied around it. It only works if you work the quarter note into the bass players quarter notes, which in turn work into the piano syncopation and the eighth note and triplet lines of the horn players. Essentially, you have to have the jazz vocabulary in your head as you play quarter notes. It's organic. Otherwise, people would call a metronome to make a gig! (Which is a problem because most metronomes don't have cars.....)

Anyway, these are just theories. I'm interested in bridging the gap between the teaching of jazz and the "university of the streets" way to learn. I mostly learned by listening and going to jazz clubs and trying to piece it together while older cats yelled at me on the bandstand. I don't want to yell at my students, but I do want to see them improve. Maybe there are no shortcuts, but at least I can lead them down the quickest route.....