The roots of jazz extend back to Africa, the slave trade, and the musical alterations and blends that took place in what is now the United States. The music of blacks, whites, Hispanics, and possibly even the indigenous peoples of North America was combined into folk styles known as blues or gospel, played initially almost exclusively by African ûAmerican musicians in the South. It was distinguished by syncopated 4/4 rhythms and the use of bent tones known as blues notes in both vocals and instrumentals.
By the 1940s the music known as Swing had moved to urban areas of the North where it was increasingly played by large ensembles with rhythmic accents slightly behind the beat. The swing riff from Count Basie's "Let's Jump" (www.2.kenyon.edu) demonstrates this non-metric subtlety at a moderate tempo. While his melodic riffs are generally on the beat, the bass and drums seem to fall slightly after it. As the unattributed text at the above web site explains it:
"Swing rhythm is based on two emphasized subdivisions of the beat which adds a horizontal feel to the music" (ibid.).á
Swing was created by black musicians such as Count Basie, but due to the racism dominant throughout the United States in the 1930s and 1940s they were limited in venues where they could play, and their recordings were relegated to the "race music" category and sold only in predominantly black areas, such as urban ghettoes and the South. Therefore white bands like those of Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and Harry James became the most famous and commercially successful purveyors of this style.
"Brown Skin Girl" by alto-sax player Sonny Rollins is an interesting variation on the repertoire of mainstream jazz, because it shows the Caribbean influences on jazz. The tune is calypso, a folk art from Trinidad-Tobago and other islands, which hits the downbeat and then waits until after the second beat for the bass or drums to return.
...