The Count Basie Orchestra - Little Drummer Boy (2015)

The Count Basie Orchestra: Little Drummer Boy

Amazon: http://smarturl.it/CountBasieXmasCD THE LEGENDARY COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA CELEBRATES 80 YEARS WITH THEIR FIRST CHRISTMAS RECORDING A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas! includes 11 holiday tracks featuring special guests Johnny Mathis, Ledisi, Ellis Marsalis, and Carmen Bradford. Coinciding with celebrating its 80th anniversary, the legendary Count Basie Orchestra continues to make music history with the November 6th, 2015 release of A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas!

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One of the most distinctive qualities of The Basie Orchestra is their ability to "lay back" the beat. A really great example of this is Basie's Lil Darlin' recording.

There are many theories on how they achieved this feeling, but I think the biggest factor is that the bass, drums, and guitar are slightly rhythmically displaced. This means that all the instruments are playing the same tempo, except certain instruments are shifted and they don't all land on their note at the exact same spot.

Other types of music employ a similar concept too. Robert Glasper's version of Smells Like Teen Spirit is a great example of another way to displace a rhythm. The drummer shifts the 'back beat' (in this case, the snare drum and the drum pad) back slightly and it creates a modern hip hop feel.