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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

What gives jazz its swing? A delay makes the difference

Doctored versions of jazz tracks help scientists to pinpoint the source of the elusive quality called swing.
Saxophonist/Flautist Najee performs on stage, Georgia.

Perfect timing: a brief delay in some of the soloist’s notes confers swing on jazz. Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty

Jazzy sound, or swing, has a je ne sais quoi that even experts struggle to put into words. Experiments by a team of physicists and psychologists now support the hypothesis that the swing feeling is produced when performers subtly deviate from one another in the timing of their notes1.

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Nature 610, 235 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03082-z

References

  1. Nelias, C., Sturm, E. M., Albrecht, T., Hagmayer, Y. & Geisel, T. Comms. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-022-00995-z (2022).

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