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Re: Re: No Swing in the U.K.?

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Re: No Swing in the U.K.?
From: J.Alexander@xxxxxxxxxxx (Jack Alexander)
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:51:30 +1100
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gregor Spowart said:

>All i'm saying is that British Brass bands can't play jazz or swing, but

If I can add a few comments:

1.  Very few modern bands really "swing".  By "bands" I mean any group
playing written ensemble music, be they British, Australian, American,
brass, concert, symphonic or even "jazz" orchestras.   The reason is that
you can't notate "swing".  It's to do with rhythmic things like knowing
when to play on the beat and when to anticipate the beat, how to divide the
beat, and not-so-rhythmic things like knowing which part of a phrase gets
emphasis.

The closest you can come to notating it is "syncopation" where a
semi-quaver (or shorter) is tied to a note on the next beat.  The jazz
player sees the short note as belonging to the next beat (i.e.
anticipation) rather than tied to it (syncopation).

If you can look at some original scores from 1930s-40s swing bands there is
very little "swing" written in.  Just as a baroque musician knew what to do
with ornamentation, so does a good jazz musician know how he/she (and the
rest of the band) will play a particular phrase.   It's all in the head, as
they say.

Dividing the beat: true enough, two notes in one beat in jazz are often
played long-short (gee, I wish I had some manuscript paper!), but it isn't
always crochet-quaver (triplets or 12/8 time) or dotted quaver/semi-quaver.
There is a Henry Mancini selection in which the bass part of the "Peter
Gunn" theme is written out in triplets, which sounds abominable because (a)
brass players make it sound like an English folk song and (b) Mancini wrote
(and played) it in straight quavers anyway.   This is a good example of an
arranger who otherwise does excellent stuff completely misunderstanding the
notion of "swing".

"Swinging" music written out in 12/8 time is, to me, rhythmically
incomprehensible, maybe because I cut my musical teeth in jazz groups.

Now none of this should mean that brass bands shouldn't try playing
"swinging" music, but it would be nice if arrangers, conductors and players
could study the elements of jazz writing and playing - not by reading
books, but by spending some time with jazz music and musicians.

Finally, before someone else does, let me quote 'Fats' Waller who was asked
to define swing.   He said "If you don't know what it is, you ain't got
it!"

Jack Alexander
Waverley Bondi Beach Band
Sydney   Australia




Dr Jack Alexander
Senior Lecturer
School of Optometry
University of NSW
Sydney NSW 2052   Australia

Telephone: (61) (2) 9385 5290	 Fax: (61) (2) 313 8604
E-mail: J.Alexander@xxxxxxxxxxx


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