The Drummer Who Invented Jazz’s Basic Beat

Kenny Clarke performs at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968. He spent the second half of his career in Europe. JazzSign/Lebrecht Music & Arts/Corbis It doesn’t take an expert to identify this sound as a jazz rhythm: Musicians call it “spang-a-lang,” for obvious phonetic reasons, and it’s so synonymous with jazz, it no longer occurs…

Read more