![]() ![]() I juxtaposed this experience with a film I once saw of the Benny Goodman band where the camera was looking down on a crowded dance floor from a balcony. ![]() That was because they were dancing to the symmetrical back beats on 2 and 4 of the measure. The dance floor was full but I realized that my solo could be good, bad, or mediocre and it really would not make much of a difference to the dancers. Quite a while back, when dance clubs still hired bands (before DJs took over completely) I had an epiphany while taking a guitar solo with my "funk" band. The craze ended as people became bored with the music even though the players wore funny hats, twirled their instruments, and made every effort to be visually entertaining. A golden opportunity was missed during the GAP commercial inspired mini swing craze of the mid to late '90's. The atrophied ears of today's general public could be re-awakened to the art form if that connection is once again established. Kids who were buying records could relate to it physically through dancing. The art of melodic improvisation flourished when it was part of the popular music of the '20's through the big band era. As musicians, we define jazz by the steady artistic evolution of the craft that has occurred since. It is difficult to have a historical perspective since most of us were born long after that. There was a time long ago when jazz was contemporary pop. Each week during Dick Clark's Rate-A-Record segments on American Band Stand, studio audience members repeatedly extolled the rock 'n roll virtue: "It has a good beat and it is easy to dance to." With the evolution of bebop and the shift to it being mainly a listening experience, jazz had indeed lost it's backbeat. Chuck Berry laid out the problem with modern jazz versus rock 'n roll, stating that the latter has "a backbeat - you can't lose it". This percussive device has been long lost but I suggest revisiting it. ![]() Asymmetrical backbeats had been a staple of popular swing drumming, notably with Papa Joe Jones, Sid Catlett, and Gene Krupa. A looser, asymmetrical, definition is a strong accent on one of the normally unaccented beats of the bar. It is usually defined as accented beats 2 and 4 in common time. It creates a physical connection with music. The function of the backbeat is to get you to snap your fingers, tap your foot, maybe even dance. ![]()
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