I mean, I know what it means when they say a Jazz piece swings. In fact, swing, in Jazz actually refers to two things:
1) Swinging "Literary" - the attribute of playing the even eight notes closer/later to the odd eighth notes, or perhaps its better said, playing notes as if the beats are subdivided into triplets, such that the time signature is, in effect 3/4 or 6/8.
2) Swinging - Playing in a grooving, funky way in which the beat is both emphasized well and yet reflects the "humanism" of the artist playing. Accentuating and de-accentuating all the right beats for artistic effect.
So this is what it means in Jazz, and, if by "swing" we mean the second definition when we refer to it in Salsa, then , cool.
But I get the impression that when Salsa people talk about swing, some of us really mean 'Swing", like that 3/4 time thing! Back in '98 when I didn't know anything about Salsa, I walked into this instrument shop and the saleperson fellow hunched over the congas said to me "you know what's the problem with Salsa nowadays? It doesn't really swing."
So, what might we mean?
Possibility 1: Emphasizing the Clave: Salsa swings when the instruments honor the clave in their own respective ways
Possibility 2: The Upbeats: Salsa swings when it emphasizes back-beats - the 2, 4, 6, 8 by the dancers' count.
Possibility 3: Literal Tertiary Swing/Shuffle: Salsa swings when some instruments actually literally swings (shuffles, I would call it if you are talking about a 16th note pulse)
Possibility 4: Something I am completely missing
To complicate matters, Calichris, in the Cha-Cha vs. Son thread, quoted Willie Colon in the following way:
Hmmm, this 6/8 piece has me open. When I was first analyzing and trying to figure out the Salsa groove back in 2010, I had (and for a long time, had) the sneaking suspicioun that Salsa had some kind of tertiary shuffle in it somewhere; a 6/8 beat by its very nature shuffles. However, I have been unable to detect an instrument that, as part of its typical contribution to the groove, shuffles. Now, there are exceptions galore to this. I will sometimes program by congas or bongos to play a shuffling or (literally) swinging fill-in here and there. Furthermore, some arrangers (Grupo Niche) is a fine example, will arrange shuffling horn parts (Cali Pachanguero has a few shuffling horn bops).
So, can we can come to some kind of consensus as to what we mean by Salsa swinging? I know the Jazz cats will never agree to this (one Jazz musician, when challenged to define swing, remarked "man, you're better off trying to figure out Einstein's theory"). But I'd like to think that us Salsa cats are more in one accord than the Jazz cats
