Down And Up Beats In Eight Summary

In this article we made a comparison of the timings of the down and up beats in eighth notes of Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Coleman Hawkins by using a sound editing software program. A “delayed ratio,” a “bounce ratio,” and an “upbeat ratio” were defined as the duration ratio of the length between the onset of bass and that of downbeat divided by one beat of bass, the duration ratio of the downbeat divided by one beat of bass, and the sum of delayed ratio and bounce ration, respectively. The delayed ratio and the upbeat ratio became larger from Hawkins' day through Young's to Parker's, whereas the bounce ratio became smaller from Hawkins' day to Young's and Parker's. In this way the timing of eighth notes is considered to have occurred
during the transition from swing jazz to bebop from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s. It is also speculated that a large ratio by Parker was passed on to Modern Jazz.