When I married late in life, it came with terms: that I WOULD study and become proficient in ballroom dance. 

The teacher was wonderful, but one thing that bugged me as a musician was the routine of direction "slow, quick, quick" rather than "1, 2, 3". What you get when with folks who can't count, or something....

The other thing that bugged me was the triple swing step. Big step left, with two little steps, big step right, with two little steps, then a rock step. "STEP, step-step, STEP, step-step, rock step." I just felt like a complete klutz.

Then one day in our lesson, it clicked when it dawned me and I said to my wife "It's like Notes Inégale!" to which the teacher excitedly responded "it's EXACTLY like notes Inégale!". Turns out she had spent years with the local baroque opera company and wrote a master thesis on Inégale.

Point is, great swing performances have this flexibile tension outside the bounds a triple or dotted rhythm, with much the same "recipe for variety" suggested by Claudio. And now that I think about it, perhaps there is NO way to make a compelling performance of swing music, without swinging it.....

I recently took to the harpsichord for a wonderful performance of the Charpentier Te Deum. Funny, how very sensitive singers with a long track record of the baroque get stuck in the rut of wanting Inégale to be exactly a triple or dotted rhythm.

Time to bring out the swing recordings...

Bruce Jacobs

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