Beat (jazz)
- Barry Kernfeld
Extract
The basic pulse underlying measured music and thus the unit by which musical time is reckoned; the beat, though not always sounded, is always perceived as underpinning the temporal progress of the music, and it is only the presence of the beat that allows rhythm to be established. This article describes the ways in which the beat is expressed in jazz, and the relationship between the underlying pulse and the rhythms played by jazz musicians....
