Strong and consistent downbeat eh...This is why I wanted to hear others understanding of pocket. I would not have described it like that, but I can see how you intrepret it like that.
I had a real "pocket" experience just last Sunday...(doesn't happen all the time) The band could do no wrong. (At least for the few songs that this certain black female singer was doing. It was an open mic jam situation that went really well) I had the feeling that I could almost drop out and it wouldn't matter, the groove was so strong. It's like I identify the groove, and really nail it, then after playing it for awhile, momentum gets built up and I find that I'm sometimes barely playing, just marking time, but it feels oh so good...
She did all shuffle tunes. A good shuffle tune is a great example of a pocket situation, if played properly.
I was playing a mid-tempoTexas style shuffle beat (my favorite sounding shuffle beat) when the good stuff was happening.
The band had really great top calibre players, and I felt great when the singer signaled a quick stop, and I was the only one who picked it up. I was paying the most attention to her. The other guys stopped slightly after me, but it didn't mess the song up, because I was on the money baby.
The black female singer went out of her way to give me a genuine complement afterwards, asked for my card and invited me out to her next gig to sit in with her band. I felt HIGHLY complemented that a soulful (and quite hot) black female singer acknowledged me. She TORE IT UP. I would have posted a recording but my recorder got mistakenly picked up by someone who mistook it for a friend of theirs recorder, and I missed recording that part of the gig. Damn! Lost forever!