A couple of years ago at the Humboldt Afro-Cuban workshop (
http://www.humboldt.edu/afrocuban/), Michael Spiro and I gave a two part lecture/demonstration titled "Swing, the elusive feel." I demonstrated how basic swing motifs (or
feels if you prefer), are generated by cross-rhythms such as three-against-two (3:2). I also demonstrated how alternating between 4/4 and 12/8 generate a swing, and how the strokes of some patterns, such as rumba clave, may fall in-between the triple and duple pulse "grids."
Michael demonstrated the phenomenon of playing in-between the "grid," which of course, is what he refers to as
fix. He also talked about the practical application of this feeling. Michael's term
fix, has been a helpful aid in conveying a very important, but difficult technique, used in the performance of what he calls Afro-centric music.
Kaban wrote:Is "fix" another word for "feel"?
"Fix" is an important feel in a lot of the music.
bongosnotbombs wrote:You always hear "fix" in rumba, actually the real term is called swing.
Right on Bongosnotbombs. If one is not that comfortable with the term
fix, it's cool; we have a synonym that comes out of the African American tradition—
swing. The term
swing goes way back. It is deeply imbedded in the jazz lexicon.
“If you don’t feel [swing], you’ll never know what it is”—Louis Armstrong.
"It don't mean a thing, if it aint got that swing"—Duke Ellington.
- Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
As I see it, the exact same cross-rhythms that generate clave, also generate swing. This can be easily demonstrated. In the following example, the three strokes of a displaced 3:2 fragment (top) provide a swung substitute for three strokes in straight 4/4 (bottom).
- Bottom: even duple subdivisions of the beat. Top: swung correlative—the contrasting of duple and triple subdivisions of the beat.
The New Harvard Dictionary of Music has an excellent definition of swing:
The New Harvard Dictionary of Music wrote:SWING: An intangible rhythmic momentum in jazz. Swing defies analysis; claims to its presence may inspire arguments. But it is meaningful as a general concept: in swing and bebop, ‘swinging’ triplet subdivisions contrast with duple subdivisions.
"Intangible." Yes, there is no developed Cuban terminology for what we are talking about, except perhaps in Cuban academia.
In many, if not most sub-Saharan African cultures, where this music first arose, there is no word for
rhythm, or even
music. It is simply considered an embodiment of the people.
While I find this topic fascinating to think and talk about, I have found that any sense of authentic feel I have been able to replicate, came directly from playing with people who had that feel.
-David