I had the privelege of learning jazz improv from Terrell Stafford this
past semester here at Temple, and he had lots to say about rhythm, swing,
etc.
One of the first things he told us was that "swing" as it is taught in
most theory books (2 8th notes as a triplet of two tied 8ths and a detached
8th) is not the whole story and is, in fact, often not the case. "Swing"
has little to do with the actual RHYTHM but instead the FEELING. In
order to swing, a player has to worry about beat placement and
articulation. Generally, the soloist has to lay back behind the beat,
and the rhythm section has to stay on top of the beat. This is about as
far as you can go as far as verbalizing what it's all about. The best
way to do "swing" is to play along with recordings, play with other
musicians, and LISTEN. It's something that resists academic analysis. I'm
just beginning to learn that.
As far as some good things to look at rhythmically and in terms of swing
are Basie's "Lester Leaps In", Ellington's "Cottontail", Louis
Armstrong's "Cornet Chop Suey", "Struttin' with Some Barbecue", and my
favorite "(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You", Jellyroll
Morton's "King Porter Stomp", Charlie Christian's "Stompin' at the
Savoy" live at Minton's, Clifford's "Hymn of the Orient" and "Cherokee",
Bird's "Move", "Cool Blues", and "Now's the Time", Wes' "Movin' Along",
Coltrane's "Bessie's Blues" or "Blue Train" (when these heavy jazz guys
play the blues, it almost always swings like crazy. The blues is a
deceptively hard thing to do really well.) Dex's "Scrapple from the
Apple", Bud Powell's "Cherokee", Sonny Rollins' "Without a Song", and
Dizzy's "The Eternal Triangle."
This is just the beginning. A good way to tell if something "swings" or
not is just to ask yourself if it gets your toes tappin' and your fingers
snappin'. Just that simple. Terrell recommended gospel music, too. The
main thing is to go to the roots of jazz. To make a Mark Whitfield
reference, "The Blues from Way Back."