The Microrhythms of Joe Pass: Analysis and Application of Swing Ratios and Tempo by Adam Hernandez A.A. Miami Dade College
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The Microrhythms of Joe Pass: Analysis and Application of Swing Ratios and Tempo by Adam Hernandez A.A. Miami Dade College, 2014 B.M. University of Miami, 2016 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Music Department of Music 2020 This thesis entitled: The Microrhythms of Joe Pass: Analysis and Application of Swing Ratios and Tempo written by Adam Hernandez has been approved for the Department of Music Dr. John Gunther Bradley Goode Date 4/27/2020 The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. Abstract: Hernandez, Adam Paul (M.M. Jazz Performance & Pedagogy) The Microrhythms of Joe Pass: Analysis and Application of Swing Ratios and Tempo Thesis directed by Dr. John Gunther Joe Pass is one of defining guitarists of the jazz genre, and has produced a vast amount of recordings in various orchestrations. Pass has demonstrated a mastery of the swing rhythm, which is one of the defining features of the jazz style of playing. This thesis consists of analysis utilizing digital audio software to measure and record BUR (beat-upbeat ratio) data from excerpts of Pass’ playing. It was found that Pass utilized a wide range of swing ratios at different tempi, oftentimes fluidly throughout the course of a single excerpt. A method of practicing and applying the concepts discovered from the BUR data is also offered, for the purpose of utilization in jazz pedagogy or by the reader themselves. iii Table of Contents Introduction: 1 Example 1: Triplet Swing Notation 2 More on BUR 4 Method of Analysis and Data Collection 5 Analysis of Figures: 6 Figure 1. There Is No Greater Love MM. 91-95. Tempo ~ 194 BPM 6 Figure 2. There Is No Greater Love MM. 25-26 8 Figure 3. Cherokee (1:40) ~ 207 BPM. (Cont. on next page) 9 Figure 4. Cherokee (2:27) 12 Figure 5: Cherokee, Solo Guitar (1:53) (Cont. on next page) 15 Figure 6: Tempo profile of Figure 5. 16 Figure 7: Night and Day, Solo Guitar (1:29) 18 Figure 8: Tempo Profile of Figure 7. 19 Figure 9: Night and Day, Trio (2:00) 20 Figure 10: Tempo Profile of Figure 9 21 Figure 11: Night and Day, Trio (2:31) 22 Figure 12: Tempo Profile of Figure 11. 23 Application of BUR Concepts to Jazz Pedagogy 24 Figure 13: Even Eighth Notes 26 Figure 14: Triplet Swing Eighth Notes 26 Figure 15: Extreme Swing 27 Figure 16: Reverse Swing 28 Figure 17: Low Swing 28 Figure 18: Swing - Straight Contour 29 Figure 19: Straight – Swing - Straight Contour 30 Figure 20: Swing – Straight – Swing Contour 31 Figure 21: Low swing with isolated high swing beats 31 Conclusion 32 Bibliography 34 iv The Microrhythms of Joe Pass: An Analysis of Swing Ratios and Tempo By: Adam Hernandez Introduction: The following research will be analyzing the improvisations of jazz guitarist Joe Pass with an emphasis on rhythm, particularly microrhythm. Joe Pass was selected as the subject for this research because he is one of the most influential guitarists in all of jazz, and produced a vast amount of recordings of jazz standards in different group settings, and solo guitar recordings. Pass has clearly demonstrated a mastery of the swing rhythm, and while there are many factors involved in a player’s “feel” such as articulation, dynamics, and phrasing, this research will focus purely on the microrhythmic traits of Pass’ playing. In my own experience with the world of music education, most efforts to impart knowledge to students have revolved around the concepts of harmony and melody, particularly when addressing non-percussion instrumentalists. Classical music theory classes spend their time ensuring that every student has a thorough knowledge of major keys, minor keys, roman numeral analysis, counterpoint, etc. Jazz theory classes typically span several semesters teaching students how to analyze chord progressions, and improvise using the popular chord-scale method. The common theme is that the main focus of study is pitch, disproportionately to rhythm. One of the most important elements of jazz that is generally considered to be unique to the genre is the swing eighth-note. Consequently, it can be assumed that part of the job of a jazz educator is to provide the student with the information required to 1 develop as thorough of an understanding of swing eighth notes as any other fundamental harmonic concept. The most common method for educators to teach swing eighth notes, is basing the rhythm on a triplet subdivision such as in example 1. Example 1: Triplet Swing Notation The student is told to think of the first and third partial of the triplet as the new “downbeat” and “upbeat,” terms that would normally refer to the partials of even eighth notes. The result of this method is that the student learns to play eighth notes in an uneven manner, with the downbeat lasting longer than the upbeat (in the case of the triplet, the downbeat lasts exactly twice as long as the upbeat.) This method of teaching swing is found in countless sources such as John Riley’s The Art of Bop Drumming1 (admittedly, Riley acknowledges that the triplet isn’t a 100% accurate representation) and websites such as studybass.com (which also acknowledges that there is some room for interpretation in the eighth notes.) Fumi Tomita counters the presentation of swing as based on the triplet subdivision in his book The Jazz Rhythm Section: A Manual for Band Directors, where he states: 1 John Riley, The Art of Bop Drumming (Manhattan Music Publications, 1998): 7 2 “Learning how to “swing,” students are commonly told to think of swing eighths as being the first and third triplets of an eighth-note triplet. But in practice, swing eighth notes fall somewhere between the even eighth note, which falls halfway through the beat and the third eighth note of an eighth-note triplet.2” Beyond this method, swing is often described as something that needs to be “felt” or heard, which is done by learning jazz vocabulary by ear. Despite the prevalence of the triplet pedagogical practice, there has been research in recent years that has called into question the idea of the swing eighth note being based on a triplet subdivision. In his journal article Slicing The Beat: Jazz Eighth-Notes as Expressive Microrhythm, music researcher Fernando Benadon utilized software as an analytical tool to measure the exact length of swing eighth notes and calculate the ratio between the downbeats and upbeats. Benadon’s term (which I will be using for my analysis) for this value is the BUR (Beat- Upbeat Ratio), which “describes the temporal proportion between two subsequent eighth- notes by measuring and comparing their duration.”3 Benadon’s research revealed that many jazz soloists were not adhering to the triplet subdivision, which resulted in eighth notes being played that exist somewhere in between even eighth notes and triplets. BUR provides a new lens through which to analyze rhythms on a staggeringly nuanced level, far beyond the level that would be covered in a typical music theory course. For this research, I have also implemented an expansion upon this analytical tool 2 Fumi Tomita, The Jazz Rhythm Section: A Manual for Band Directors (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019): 4 3 Fernando Benadon, “Slicing The Beat: Jazz Eighth-Notes as Expressive Microrhythm,” Ethnomusicology vol. 50, no. 1 (Winter 2006): 74 3 by adding the length of the downbeat and upbeat together to get the BL (Beat Length) value. The goal of this research is to use BUR and BL as a tool to analyze the way Joe Pass played swing eighth notes, compare the findings to commonplace definitions of swing eighth notes (the triplet), and to provide a method by which to practice and apply the micro-timing concepts to jazz performance. More on BUR: In Slicing the Beat, Benadon provides a basic chart illustrating ways of notating different BURs4: EX. 2 - Notated swing ratios Even eighth notes have a BUR of 1.0, as they are exactly equal in length. As previously mentioned, the commonplace definition of swing eighth notes is based off first and third partial of the triplet, which results in a BUR of 2.0. One other less commonly 4 Benadon, Slicing The Beat, 75. 4 used method of teaching the swing eighth note is the BUR of 3.0 (based on sixteenth notes.) Far less commonly taught are the ratios that lay in between 1.0 and 2.0, which Benadon demonstrated to be an area of subdivision that many jazz soloists favored. In the analysis of various examples from Joe Pass, we will see whether or not he also favors ratios that lay in between “even” and “triplet” eighths. The criteria for the selections to be analyzed will be similar to Bendon’s approach: to use “lines” in which there are long chains of consecutive eighth notes exclusively (as opposed to including rests, quarter notes, and other non-eighth note material) however, I will include some examples that contain rests on beat 1 or triplets and sixteenth notes that may occur in the middle of a line. Method of Analysis and Data Collection: The process by which the following figures will be analyzed is by collecting the BUR data from each pair of eighth notes occurring in the phrase. The data was collected using the flex-time feature on the software Logic Pro 9.