8/18/2023 0 Comments Jazz mudic![]() ![]() Geisel says the expert musicians were nearly 7.5 times more likely to rate the version with the downbeat delays as having more of a satisfying swing feel. "They told us that they could hear friction between the rhythm section and the soloist, but they were amazed that they could not identify what was going on exactly. "They noticed a difference and they could feel the difference," Geisel says. Here's what those two versions sound like:Įven so, the jazz musicians who rated the clips picked up on it. In another version, the soloist's downbeats started just the tiniest bit behind the rhythm section, but their offbeats were not delayed. In one version, for example, the piano soloist started at the exact same time as the rhythm section. The song they manipulated was a recording of "Jordu," a jazz standard written by Duke Jordan. "We had experts - professional and semi-professional jazz musicians - rate how swinging these different versions of a tune were," he explains. To test this theory, Geisel and his colleagues took jazz recordings and used a computer to manipulate the timing of the soloist with respect to the rhythm section. ![]() This is true, of course, to some extent," says Geisel.īut since the 1980s, some scientists and music scholars have claimed that the swing feel is actually created by tiny timing deviations between different musicians playing different types of instruments. "It's a general belief that musicians should synchronize as best they can when they play together. That's given him more time to use his theoretical physics toolkit to explore other mysteries of the universe, including this one: How do musicians synchronize when they try to create swing in jazz? He even has a band with other physicists. He's also a passionate amateur saxophonist. He spent decades studying the physics of synchronization - for example, how the billions of neurons in your brain coordinate with each other. Geisel is a theoretical physicist with the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the University of Göttingen in Germany. As the Big Band era jazz trumpeter Cootie Williams once reportedly joked about swing, "Describe it? I'd rather tackle Einstein's theory."įittingly, physicists now think they've got an answer to the secret of swing - and it all has to do with subtle nuances in the timing of soloists.īut how exactly are musicians playing off each other to create that swing feel? That's what Theo Geisel wanted to find out. Still, a precise definition of swing has long eluded musicians and scholars alike. As Ella Fitzgerald and many others have sung, " It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." You might describe swing as a rhythmic phenomenon in jazz performances - a propulsive, groovy feeling that makes you want to move with the music. Swing has long been considered an essential component of almost all types of jazz, from traditional to bepop to post-bop. ![]() As legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong once put it, "What is this thing called swing?" Physicists think that subtle nuances in the timing of soloists are key to creating that propulsive swing feel.īernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Imageįor nearly a century, jazz musicians and scholars have debated the answer to a musical mystery. Swing is an essential component of nearly all kinds of jazz music. Jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman plays in 2019.
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