Personal differences in swing feel

(thanks to Jerry Kalaf for Jazz musicians talk about the nature of swing: the subtle aspects of how a rhythm section plays together and reacts to a soloist. One aspect of music with swing 8th notes is that at different tempos, people hear and phrase differently, sometimes influenced by the particular instruments they play. At very slow tempos many players prefer to count or feel the music in triplet subdivisions – so they’re feeling everything in 12/8.  There seems to be different “break points” for this – some players are comfortable with slower tempos than others; some players don't have s trong internal sense of time and expect the drummer to play time pretty constantly in order for them to feel comfortable…     

At fast tempos, the tendency on most instruments is for the swing 8th notes to even out a bit..  Drummers, however, bounce the stick on the cymbal for a fast ride pattern.  Often the swing 8th note gets more pronounced the faster they go – closer to dotted 8ths and 16ths. Sometimes players can get a very relaxed feeling in playing by delaying the “ands” at slow tempos - giving a feeling of laziness. Ray Charles did this well. I am not talking about back-phrasing at this point; that’s a terrific sound when done well. I’m just talking about where the “ands” are positioned in relation to the beats.  On the other hand, we’ve all heard music where delaying the “ands” in swing sounds jerky or corny, anything but relaxed.  I’m not sure what makes the difference; sometimes it's playing accents that are too strong and disrupt the continuity.  Comments, anyone?