They didn't know who should occupy the drum stool. Leonard Bernstein's score was hard. And it was jazzy. At the time most of Britain's jazz drummers wouldn't do because they simply couldn't read music well enough. The classical percussionists, though flawless readers, also had an irredeemable failing.
Swing is at the heart of jazz.
It's what makes the difference between music you can't resist tapping your feet to and a tune that leaves you unmoved. Only now are scientists beginning to unravel the subtle secrets of swing. Even today, many drum instruction manuals lay down a rigid formula for swing, based on alternately lengthening and shortening certain notes according to a strict ratio, says Anders Friberg, a physicist at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who's also a pianist. But these rules are misleading. The fundamental rhythmic unit in jazz is the quarter note.