Break (music)

"Drum break" redirects here. For the automobile brake, seedrum brake.For other uses, seeBreak (disambiguation).

Not to be confused withBreakdown (music).

Inpopular music,abreakis aninstrumentalorpercussionsection during a song derived from or related tostop-time– being a "break" from the mainpartsof the song or piece. A break is usually interpolated between sections of a song, to provide a sense of anticipation, signal the start of a new section, or create variety in the arrangement.

Jazz

A solo break injazzoccurs when therhythm section(piano, bass, drums) stops playing behind a soloist for a brief period, usually two or four bars leading into the soloist's first improvised solo chorus (at which point the rhythm section resumes playing). A notable recorded example is sax playerCharlie Parker's solo break at the beginning of his solo on "A Night in Tunisia".While the solo break is a break for the rhythm section, for the soloist, it is a solocadenza,where they are expected to improvise an interesting and engaging melodic line.

DJing and dance music

InDJparlance, indisco,hip hopandelectronic dance music,a break is where all the elements of a song (e.g.,synth pads,basslines,vocals), except for percussion, disappear; as such, the break is also called a "percussion break".

This is distinguished from abreakdown,asectionwhere the composition is deliberately deconstructed to minimal elements (usually the percussion or rhythm section with the vocal re-introduced over the minimal backing), all other parts having been gradually or suddenly cut out.The distinction between breaks and breakdowns may be described as, "Breaks are for the drummer; breakdowns are for electronic producers".In hip hop music and electronica, a short break is also known as a "cut", and the reintroduction of the fullbass lineand drums is known as a "drop",which is sometimes accented by cutting off everything, even the percussion right before the full music is dropped back in.

Hip hop

Old-schoolhip-hopDJs have described the relationship between breaks, early hip-hop music, anddisco.According toAfrika Bambaataa:

Now he took the music of like Mandrill, like "Fencewalk", certain disco records that had funky percussion breaks like the Incredible Bongo Band when they came out with "Apache" and he just kept that beatgoing.It might be that certain part of the record that everybody waits for—they just let their inner self go and get wild. The next thing you know the singer comes back in and you'd be mad.

MusicologistDavid Toop,based on interviews withDJ Grandmaster Flash,Kool DJ Herc,and others, has written:

Break-beat music and hip-hop culture were happening at the same time as the emergence of disco (in 1974 known asparty music). Disco was also created by DJs in its initial phase, though these tended to be club jocks rather than mobile party jocks – records by Barry White, Eddie Kendricks and others became dancefloor hits in New York clubs like Tamberlane and Sanctuary and were crossed over onto radio by Frankie Crocker at station WBLS. There were many parallels in the techniques used by Kool DJ Herc and a pioneering disco DJ like Francis Grasso, who worked at Sanctuary, as they used similar mixtures and superimpositions of drumbeats, rock music, funk and African records For less creative disco DJs, however, the ideal was to slip-cute smoothly from the end of one record into the beginning of the next. They also created a context for breaks rather than foregrounding them, and the disco records which emerged out of the influence of this type of mixing tended to feature long introductions, anthemic choruses and extended vamp sections, all creating a tension which was released by the break. Break-beat music simply ate the cherry off the top of the cake and threw the rest away. In the words of DJ Grandmaster Flash, "Disco was brand new then and there were a few jocks that had monstrous sound systems but they wouldn't dare play this kind of music. They would never play a record where only two minutes of the song was all it was worth. They wouldn't buy those types of records. The type of mixing that was out then was blending from one record to the next or waiting for the record to go off and wait for the jock to put the needle back on."

Hip hop, disco, and eroticism

DJ Kool Herc'sinnovative use of the break-beat came about through his observations of dancers and desire to give them what they wanted. In this case the who was b-boys (otherwise known as break-boys or breakdancers) and what they wanted was an opportunity to move explosively, express themselves, and peacock to women (Brester and Broughton 167).This grounds the conception of the innovation both in the embodied movements of the dancers and in the eroticism and sexuality of the b-boys themselves. As hip-hop used a number of disco tracks, and a number of Afro-American and Latin American tracks popularized by disco record pools, the eroticism brought out by these tracks can be presumed to be replicated in these hip-hops mixes, albeit altered through the emphasis and repetition of the break-beat. This suggests strong ties between hip-hop and disco so far as their vibrations, in that both are dancer focused and as such the corporeal vibrations between the embodied sensual movements of the dancers and the sounding of the DJ are resonating off each other to create a space for expression and eroticism in the club.

Break

A break may be described as when the song takes a "breather, drops down to some exciting percussion, and then comes storming back again"and compared to afalse ending.Breaks usually occur two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through a song.According toPeter van der Merwea break "occurs when the voice stops at the end of a phrase and is answered by a snatch of accompaniment", and originated from thebass runsof marches of the "Sousa school".In this case it would be a" break "from the vocal part. Inbluegrassand otherold-time music,a break is "when an instrument plays themelodyto a songidiomatically,i.e. theback-upplayed on thebanjofor amandolin'break' may differ from that played for adobro'break' in the same song ".

According toDavid Toop,"the wordbreakorbreakingis a music anddanceterm, as well as a proverb, that goes back a long way. Some tunes, like 'Buck Dancer's Lament' from early in the nineteenth century, featured a two-bar silence in every eight bars for the break—a quick showcase of improvised dance steps. Others used the same device for a solo instrumental break; a well-known example being the four-bar break taken byCharlie ParkerinDizzy Gillespie's tune 'Night in Tunisia'. "

However, in hip hop today, the termbreakrefers toanysegment of music(usually four measures or less) that could besampledand repeated. A break is any expanse of music that isthought of as a breakby a producer. In the words ofDJ Jazzy Jay:"Maybe those records [whose breaks are sampled] were ahead of their time. Maybe they were made specifically for the rap era; these people didn't know what they were making at that time. They thought, 'Oh, we want to make a jazz record'".Like the song Stereo World By Feeder and Upon This Rock by Newsboys are example that have a break and use this technique.

Breakbeat (element of music)

Main article:Breakbeat

Abreak beatis thesamplingof breaks as (drum loop) beats, (originally found insoulorfunktracks) and their subsequent use as therhythmicbasis forhip hopandrap.It was invented byDJ Kool Herc,aJamaicanwho emigrated to New York. He is usually credited with being a pioneer of the technique of using two copies of one record so as to be able to mix between the same break,or, as Bronx DJAfrika Bambaataadescribes, "that certain part of the record that everybody waits for—they just let their inner self go and get wild", extending its length through repetition.However, it is likely that there were a number of like-minded DJs developing the technique at the same time; for example, Walter Gibbons was noted in first-hand accounts by his peers for cutting two copies of the same record in his discothèque gigs of the mid-1970s.

A particularly innovative style of street dance was created to accompany break beat-based music, and was hence referred to as "The Break", orbreaking.In the 1980s, charismatic dancers likeCrazy Legs,Frosty Freeze,and theRock Steady Crewrevived the breaking movement.

More recently, electronic artists have created "break beats" from other electronic music, resulting in a broad style classification itself calledbreakbeat.Hip-hop break beat compilations includeHardcore Break BeatsandBreak Beats,andDrum Drops.It was during the break beats of the song that break dancers and b-boys and girls would become the focus of attention and demonstrate their personal flair. DJ Kool Herc inspired local dancers to dance on the break beats, creating new sounds by combining the breakbeats from various songs.

Notable examples

Musical ensembles which are notable for their use of breaks includethe Meters,Creative Source,the J.B.'s,the Blackbyrds,andthe Last Poets.

Notable breaks include:

• TheAmen breakfrom "Amen, Brother" (1969) bythe WinstonsThe Amen break is quite often used as a second-hand sample from "Straight Outta Compton"byN.W.A,which sampled the original.
• "Apache"by theIncredible Bongo Band,sampled from the intro. Used byDJ Kool Herc,the Sugarhill Gangin "Apache",West Street Mobin "Break Dancin' – Electric Boogie".
• "Ashley's Roachclip"byChuck Brown and the Soul Searchers.Used byEric B & Rakim,PM Dawn,Milli Vanilli,LL Cool Jand many others.
• "Funky Drummer"by James Brown, sampled roughly at 5:34.Used byPublic Enemy,Run-D.M.C.,LL Cool J,Ice Cube,etc.
• "Fencewalk" byMandrill,used byDJ Kool Herc
• "Think (About It)"byLyn Collins
• "The Bottle" byGil Scott-Heron
• "Mardi Gras" byBob James,cover ofPaul Simon's "Take Me to the Mardi Gras",sampled from the intro. Used by the Crash Crew on" Breaking Bells (Take Me to the Mardi Gras) "and byRun DMCon "Peter Piper".
• "Sesame Street" byBlowfly,interesting testimony ofbreakbeat scienceas the breakbeat is reconstructed from various places with solo drums in the song. Also known as "Helicopter" break after "The Helicopter Tune" by Deep Blue, which is the common second-hand source of the reconstructed sample.
• "Scorpio" byDennis Coffey
• "Scratchin'"by Magic Disco Machine
• "Soul Makossa" byManu Dibango
• "Super Sporm" byCaptain Sky
• "Move On Up" byCurtis Mayfield
• "It's a New Day" bySkull Snaps
• "Synthetic Substitution" byMelvin Bliss
• "Impeach the President"bythe Honey Drippers
• "N.T." byKool and the Gang
• "Tighten Up" by James Brown
• "Cold Sweat"by James Brown

See also

• Breakbeat– music genre
• Breakdown
• Drum beat
• List of widely sampled drum breaks
• Ultimate Breaks and Beats
• Breakdancing
• Bridge (music)
• Get down
• Riff
• Song structure