Top Ten Piano Players

[Dudley]

Jools Holland named Jerry Lee Lewis as his best piano player of all time. By way of explanation he said that the way JLL "played across the beat" was unique. What did he mean by that phrase?

[saxy_jag]

Traditional music is played on the beat, i.e. the emphasis of the tune is on the first and third beat of a four-beat bar, e.g. ONE, two, THREE, four. In jazz and rock it tends to be on the off-beat, that is the second and fourth beat, e.g. one, TWO, three, FOUR. I can only imagine that music played across the beat is where the emphasis is placed on that half-beat between the on- and off-beat, sort of one AND TWO AND three AND FOUR etc.