SwingDJs

I was trying to see where the conversation was going. =D

Well Mr. Stout definitely answered my question. Four on the floor is exactly what this music all shares in common.
I was thinking, and a better name for this music would be Jam music. Am I right?
Speaking of sharing, anyone else with songs of such caliber?

tornredcarpet wrote:I was trying to see where the conversation was going. =D

Well Mr. Stout definitely answered my question. Four on the floor is exactly what this music all shares in common.
I was thinking, and a better name for this music would be Jam music. Am I right?
Speaking of sharing, anyone else with songs of such caliber?

Tha'ts it? Just a solid 4/4 rhythm is the common denom?

On the subject of 'four on the floor', I was just listening to the start of Count Basie's 'One O'Clock Jump'. For the intro, the bass is a distinct bom-bom-bom-bom four to a bar, and one of the drums is used every beat too. Then, at 45 seconds, other drums come in (as well as the brass). It's only at this 45 second stage that the music really becomes hard-swinging dance music. Before that it's pleasant but pedestrian. It would be interesting to analyse what really makes the difference.

Four on the floor only provides a solid bass - a foundation. The syncopations and dynamics are what make something pop beyond just chugging along.

I'll also come up with some examples of this later.

I just got a break between class to listen to OOJ.

Pianos are one of the softest instruments in a big band (sans amplification of course), so the band can't play behind a piano solo the way they play behind ensembles or other soloists. Basie being one of the "lightest" players around (not necesarily quiet but delicate sounding) of course the rhythm section can't just be ripping away. You can play in 4 but still not drive; dynamics (i.e. loudness and the qualities if brings out in the instruments) play a large part as well.

Listen to the way the brass background pops in that first tenor solo (Herschel Evans). Oop-baaa-ooooop-ba. Listen to the high hat change - first they were completely closed, then open a bit more, going into that trademark Jo Jones open/closed pattern under the bone solo (and then (god forbid!) Jo moves on to a ride cymbal of all things under Lester - but that's for another post).

The mixture of on beat and off beat accents is syncopation - how you play off of the base pattern is what makes something swing. If the base is not there, then the syncopations that play off it mean less. A back beat when it comes down to it is just another form of syncopation.

Campus Five wrote:if you listen to Jo Jones playing hats it sounds like - Choo-chit-ca - Choo-chit-ca. Not as your BF described it!

To clear his reputation, that was my own notation! He did actually tell me earlier in the day that the sound was much shorter because hats weren't as high quality. That was my mistake, not his. Thanks for the spelling suggestion.

I have a drum instruction book by Gene Krupa which tells you to play hi-hats in a way that emphasizes the 1 and 3. Hadn't realized that more modern jazz accents the 2 and 4 on the ride/hi-hat pattern until you pointed it out.

Subtle stuff really makes a huge difference in feel.

Thank Josh Collazo for figuring that out. I mentioned it to Hal Smith and hed seconded it. Two best authorities that I know of.

Campus Five wrote:I routinely tell people that good swing is like 1930's house music - that same relentless thumping four on the floor.

With reference to the above, how would you compare these two tracks -

Don't Be That Way by Jimmy Dorsey

The Dipsy Doodle by Willie "The Lion" Smith

tornredcarpet wrote:
I was thinking, and a better name for this music would be Jam music. Am I right?

I have a playlist in iTunes that I've named "jams". Most of the songs mentioned in this thread are on that list. I never knew what separated those songs from the rest. I now have a more fuller understanding as to why I likes the "jungle music".

sonofvu wrote:

tornredcarpet wrote:I was thinking, and a better name for this music would be Jam music. Am I right?

I have a playlist in iTunes that I've named "jams". Most of the songs mentioned in this thread are on that list. I never knew what separated those songs from the rest. I now have a more fuller understanding as to why I likes the "jungle music".

See, that's funny: I don't like "jungle music" very much. But I do like most of these songs.

Oh, and I'd only label them "jams" with a sigh of despair. As a dancer, I'd rather dance the whole song when these are playing than see a jam form. That's how much I like them!

Haydn wrote:

Campus Five wrote:I routinely tell people that good swing is like 1930's house music - that same relentless thumping four on the floor.

With reference to the above, how would you compare these two tracks -

Don't Be That Way by Jimmy Dorsey

The Dipsy Doodle by Willie "The Lion" Smith

The first I would consider swing music. The second I would consider not very swing. at all, given that the notes being played are swung in a very square way. (By 'square' I don't mean 'unhip', I mean that the rhythm is very rectilinear, rigid, and unbreathing.)

Indeed. The "Dipsy Doodle" is very "Ricky-ticky" as one of my old Jazz professors would say.

To me, the Jimmy Dorsey one is an 'Uberparty' four on the floor track, and the Willie The Lion Smith one a rinky tinky trebley one. So the Dorsey one would be a better one to play at a dance. Except that when I played them both at a dance, the Willie The Lion Smith one went down much better

Haydn wrote:To me, the Jimmy Dorsey one is an 'Uberparty' four on the floor track, and the Willie The Lion Smith one a rinky tinky trebley one. So the Dorsey one would be a better one to play at a dance. Except that when I played them both at a dance, the Willie The Lion Smith one went down much better

Energy is everything. It might not "Swing" in one sense, but it still can make you move your feet.