In the translation course I am teaching we were discussing why it it impossible to translate the word “phat.” I facetiously suggested “ghordo.” A student pointed out that such a word only has meaning within a specific context. French theorist of translation Antoine Berman claims that “translation is only possible between cultivated languages.” Vernaculars are rooted in particularities: you can’t translate hip-hop slang into the lunfardo of Buenos Aires. What are the implications of this? Is poetry a vernacular language?

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The “skip” note of a ride cymbal pattern is like that extra skip-step when a child is skipping. Children skip, then, in “jazz eighth-notes” or in a New Orleans “in the cracks” beat (half way between straight and jazz eighths). This is also the rhythm of the human heart-beat, of course. Triplet-based rhythms are easier on the nerves; straight eighths can be jarring. A nice expression for this is “chopping wood.” Yet there are straight-eighth feels that feel extremely good also.

Elvin Jones’s “rolling triplet” feel can be quite soothing, even when the tempo is frantic and his playing is extremely busy. The 6/8 Cuban-jazz paradigm is always lurking in his playing, whether he is playing in 4/4 or 3/4.

Swing is a subjective category. The swing music of the thirties often doesn’t swing for modern ears, used to the more even 4/4 feel that to the the “two” feel of many older bands. Count Basie is the obvious exception. Ellington’s band didn’t swing hard with original drummer Sonny Greer (in the opinion of many others, not just my own). Does Jeff “Tain” Watts swing? Some say not. Branford Marsalis dismissed that negative take as simply ridiculous, but I wonder...

What is dumber than jazz fans arguing about who swings (or not)? What I am interested in the difference of perception. There is a biological basis for musical rhythm, and we feel it in our bodies more than our ears. But not everyone feels or hears it in the same way. Older rhythm sections can sound “clunky,” but they might have felt fine to the original players and listeners.