Hear the time revolution

Hank didn’t treat an odd meter as a regular one with a beat lopped off. He felt it as a chain of twos and threes. Pick a pattern, press play, and tap along on the pad. The bright cells are where each group begins, which is where the band leans.

The patterns, written out

• Whiplash: 14/8 as 2+2+3+3+2+2. Hank’s note: “Each 14/8 bar is divided into 2+2+3+3+2+2 or 3+3+2+2+2+2.”
• Whiplash: 14/8 as 3+3+2+2+2+2. Hank’s note gives this as the other grouping of the 14/8 bar.
• Chain Reaction: 13/8 as 3+3+2+2+3. Hank’s note: “Chain Reaction is in 13/8, dividing each bar into 3+3+2+2+3.”
• A Peek into a New Time Zone: 14/4 as 2+2+3+3+2+2. Hank’s note: “This piece is in 14/4 meter, divided 2+2+3+3+2+2 to the bar.”
• Seven with a lift: 2+2+3, then 3+2+2. From the 2026 machine draft of my interview with Hank (unverified): he describes regrouping 2+2+3 as 3+2+2 for “a little bit of a boost and lift.”
• Your turn: 5 as 3+2. A practice pattern, not a transcription of any Levy chart. Hank’s “Chiapas” is a 5/4 bossa nova; try feeling it in five rather than “four plus one.”
• Your turn: 9 as 2+2+2+3. A practice pattern, not a transcription. “Indra,” “Quiet Friday,” “Samba Bajada” and “Time for a Change” are listed in 9/4 (Wikipedia gives “A Quiet Friday” as 5/4; see Sources). Hank’s notes don’t give their groupings.

In Hank’s words

“I have always tried to make a point of not writing a piece in 4/4 + 3/4 to make a tune in 7/4. It just doesn’t work that way. You really have to write a melody that fits in the odd meter.”Program note, “Time for a Change,” 1997

“One thing I made up my mind about, at an early age, was not to get too crazy with these rhythms. They’re already crazy.”Program note, “Latintensity,” 1997

“We’ve done so many things to jazz. We’ve changed it melodically, changed the feel, but until more recently we never changed the meter.”Program note, “A Peek into a New Time Zone,” 1997