Definition:
- a style of jazz that was dominant in the 1930s, and performed by jazz big bands primarily for dancing audiences.
- a rhythmic style that involves elongating the first of a pair of consecutive eighth notes, and accenting the second of the two. The rhythm is derived from subdividing a quarter note into three equal parts (a triplet) rather than into an even number of parts. Therefore, swung eighth notes are not really eighth notes, but two legs of a triplet tied together, and the third articulated.
- an elusive quality that some jazz musicians use to describe music they like. (e.g. “that music swings!”)
