Broken time is the jazz drummer's way of implying the pulse instead of stating it. Instead of the ride playing a continuous swing pattern, the ride breaks into fragments — three notes, then silence, then four notes, then silence. The pulse persists in the listener's ear because the band stays locked together; the drummer's job is to participate in the conversation, not to act as the metronome.
In fusion, broken time becomes electric. Tony Williams (with the Lifetime), Jack DeJohnette (with Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio in its open-form moments), and the modern players — Eric Harland, Marcus Gilmore, Justin Faulkner — all use this vocabulary. The ride still fragments, but now over a kick playing a steady ostinato (the kick becomes the time-keeper), or over a snare ostinato, or over no ostinato at all (pure implied pulse).
This is the most demanding lesson in the Level 2 fusion track. Don't approach it before the rest of the track is solid.
The Practice Trick
Set a metronome on quarter notes. Loop a click track or a bass loop. Then play the broken bar against the click — your ear stays locked to the click, your hands and feet do the broken stuff. If you can do that, you can do the same thing with a band, because the band is the click.