This question of "swing" or "inegalite" is something I've been thinking about 
for a long time. My friend Reg Hall - an ethnomusicologist who specializes in 
Irish traditional music, English traditional music, and New Orleans jazz - once 
told me that, when we talk about "traditional" music, playing "straight" or 
without "swing" is the performance practice that should have a special term 
because traditional musicians do it naturally - they swing because they play 
for dancing and this helps "lift" the dancers.  So, when talking about 
traditional music, or what John Fahey used to call "primitive" or "untutored" 
music making, "syncopation" and "swing" are the rule rather than the exception. 
They don't need special terms - playing straight does.

Reg also told me a funny story  - he was watching some "history of jazz" 
program on TV one evening and went into the kitchen to make some sandwiches 
during a break. The program started again while he was still in the kitchen. He 
listened and thought he recognized who was on trumpet, on trombone - he could 
identify pretty much the whole band. He rushed back out to the sitting room 
only to discover that there were no New Orleans musicians playing at all - it 
was a village band in Sicily playing for a funeral. He was surprised, but on 
thinking about it, it made perfect sense.  These village musicians could read, 
but the notes were a guide rather than gospel, so they never played the same 
thing twice. Basically, they improvised around the melodic and harmonic content 
and made it work. They also had the natural swing common to almost western 
traditional music making.

GDR


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