Sound Analysis of Swing in Jazz Drummers
An Analysis of Swing Characteristics of 16 well known Jazz Drummers
Although we may not agree on what is swing, we know it when we hear it. The following analysis deals with swing as the rhythmic placement of the offbeat. The common assumption is that at a medium tempo, up to 200 beats per minute, most drummers will play the offbeat as the third note of a triplet. At a slower tempo, it will move closer to the next beat, more like a 16th. As the tempo increases, the offbeat will gradually approach a straight eight.
It has been difficult to the explain why a traditional jazz ride felt so different in the hands of the following drummers:
Although we may not agree on what is swing, we know it when we hear it. The following analysis deals with swing as the rhythmic placement of the offbeat. The common assumption is that at a medium tempo, up to 200 beats per minute, most drummers will play the offbeat as the third note of a triplet. At a slower tempo, it will move closer to the next beat, more like a 16th. As the tempo increases, the offbeat will gradually approach a straight eight.
It has been difficult to the explain why a traditional jazz ride felt so different in the hands of the following drummers:
- Art Blakey
- Art Taylor
- Bernard Purdie
- Buddy Rich
- Donald Bailey
- Ed Thigpen
- Max Roach
- Mickey Roker
- Philly Jo-Jones
- Jack Dejohnette
- Elvin Jones
- Steve Gadd
- Roy Haynes
- William Kennedy
- Tony Williams
- Dave Weckel
I decided to look at how these drummers actually played their ride cymbals at tempi 200-251 bpm. One representative two bar pattern was extracted from a recording featuring each drummer. The total duration of the two measures was divided into eight equal beats, represented as 1000,2000,3000, etc. All the timing are compared to idealized beat to establish when the drummer was playing ahead or behind the beat, and how the he is placing his offbeats. Amplitude (dynamics) was also measured (in decibels) with the loudest attack equal to 100.
In comparing the performances, the first factor to consider is the number of swing points, or offbeats followed by downbeats. Here the variance ranged from 3 (very open) to 8 (very busy - intense). The placement of the swing point is an indication of how hard a given drummer swings. The range here was from 23-505 (250 being a 16th, 333 a triplet and 500 an 8th note).
Although there is an overall tendency toward the eight note at faster tempi, it turned out to be much more an individual matter that predicted. Particularly, notice that Art Taylor's offbeats were nearly 16th notes at a tempo when most drummers were on the 8th note side of the triplet. Interesting, Taylor was (with Rich & Purdie) one of only three drummers who played behind the beat. Among the busier examples (evident by the number of swing points) Steve Gadd and Roy Haynes averaged predictable near the eight while Tony Williams was on the 16th side of the triplets and Dave Weckl averaged perfect triplets. Gadd and Weckl were boiling at the high end of variability.
The above mention observations are just a few musical observations -- download the pdf file and see if you have a few others -- I would be interested to hear your observations. The full list of the swing data with graphs in acrobat pdf format is available simply click on the next line.
In comparing the performances, the first factor to consider is the number of swing points, or offbeats followed by downbeats. Here the variance ranged from 3 (very open) to 8 (very busy - intense). The placement of the swing point is an indication of how hard a given drummer swings. The range here was from 23-505 (250 being a 16th, 333 a triplet and 500 an 8th note).
Although there is an overall tendency toward the eight note at faster tempi, it turned out to be much more an individual matter that predicted. Particularly, notice that Art Taylor's offbeats were nearly 16th notes at a tempo when most drummers were on the 8th note side of the triplet. Interesting, Taylor was (with Rich & Purdie) one of only three drummers who played behind the beat. Among the busier examples (evident by the number of swing points) Steve Gadd and Roy Haynes averaged predictable near the eight while Tony Williams was on the 16th side of the triplets and Dave Weckl averaged perfect triplets. Gadd and Weckl were boiling at the high end of variability.
The above mention observations are just a few musical observations -- download the pdf file and see if you have a few others -- I would be interested to hear your observations. The full list of the swing data with graphs in acrobat pdf format is available simply click on the next line.
View/Download the PDF
| analysis-of-swing.pdf |
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