[Dixielandjazz] swinging prestissimo

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Folks,

My good buddy Robert R Calder wrote inter alia "... high speed swing was a matter of articulation..." which might appear to be obvious but is no less true for that. Prestissimo tempos present problems to players whose natural inclination is to phrase with a triplet swing feel. Their way round that is often to solo at half the tempo being played by the rhythm section (i.e. in "long metre"). Louis Armstrong used this approach in Tiger Rag, Swing That Music etc.  On the other hand players whose time feel tended towards a straight quaver (eighth-notes) feel had no problems adapting to very fast tempos. Among them were people like Benny Carter, Art Tatum and all the boppers who followed in the trail of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Indeed the general tendency of bop players towards a more even eighths time feel enabled them to tackle prestissimo tempos with greater ease so that they became commonplace in their repertoires. The Goodman trio/quartet recordings show that Goodman, Wilson and Hampton evened their eighth notes as tempi increased, so they tailored their phrasing according to tempo -triplet feel at slow, medium and bright tempi, but more even eighths at tempi above about 240 bpm.

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson