Jazz recordings with masterful comping

[Tal_175]

Please post tunes/recordings where comping (guitar or piano) has great educational value.
One of my favourite comping masters is Ed Bickert . The Ballad Artistry of Buddy Tate is a great album to listen to even just for comping alone:

[rpjazzguitar]

Jim Hall with Paul Desmond on "Glad To Be Unhappy".

[mr. beaumont]

Jim Hall with Paul Desmond on "Glad To Be Unhappy".

So good. Jim Hall with anybody, really. The master.

I'll also add Ed Bickert with anybody, but especially as part of the Desmond Quartet. Some of my favorite music ever.

Philip Catherine's comping is brilliant on the record he made with Tom Harrell as a tribute to Chet Baker--"I Remember You."

[fep]

Yes me too, I saw the title of this thread and immediately thought Jim Hall

[rpjazzguitar]

Jim Hall's comping on ballads is sublime.

For high energy Brazilian jazz, Chico Pinheiro is as good as anybody I've heard. He can drive a band from the guitar chair better than I thought it could be done before I heard him do it. I'm not sure which recording to recommend. They're all great.

He also can play a ballad. Check out Book of Longing by Luciana Souza, which also has terrific playing by Scott Colley.

[ThatRhythmMan]

Barney Kessel with Julie London


Julie Is Her Name - Julie London - YouTube

[Zephyr690]

Jim Hall's playing on the Sonny Rollins album The Bridge.
Every track is a masterclass.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Gabor]

Pat Metheny comping Charlie Haden's solos on 80/81. (wow, I've just realized it was 40 years ago... I clearly remember listening that just after it came out as it was yesterday...)

[corpse]

Yep, Jim Hall.

[christianm77]

Any date where Peter Bernstein gets to comp. Chip off the old Jim Hall block.

[christianm77]

Jim Mullen once told me he learned guitar so he could comp, no one was comping in a modern style on guitar. He is great at it.

Dave Cliff as well. I’ve been listening to his album with Howard Alden and they are absurdly simpatico. It’s crazy. Howard comps like an Mf too unsurprisingly.

Pasquale Grasso’s comping may be my favourite thing about his playing. It’s absurdly good.

[Average Joe]

Not an album, but some of my favourite comping

[Tal_175]

What's a good Peter Burnstein album for listening to comping that doesn't feature a piano.

[Tal_175]

Comping is the most impressionistic part of a combo I think. That's why I find it to be very complex. The role of the comping isn't as clearly defined as the other parts.

The harmony is already there (bassline and solo), rhythm is already there (drums and solo and bassline), the melody is already there (solo). So even if comping doesn't exist, song is already happening. Which makes comping more like painting, you bring out or build on certain elements of the harmony and rhythm (even melody) in an abstract and incomplete manner to elevate the performance. Otherwise you are either getting in the way or you're just being predictable and boring.

Moreover there doesn't seem to be any useful resource about the art of comping other than the recordings themselves. My comping bores me, hence this thread. I'm gonna have to learn this one the hard way

[jameslovestal]

Here is Philip Catherine with Dexter Gordon on Yesterday's Mood; I love the use of effects to create that 'fat' background sound Philip gets while comping for Gordon.

[Peter C]

[bengruven]

Bickert is my favorite comp-er - in fact he's my favorite jazz guitarist altogether. This live Frank Rosolino album is a gift that never stops giving - I've been listening to it for over thirty years.

"Pure Desmond" is a close runner up.

I also love John Scofield's comping on this Joe Henderson album:

For me comping is the most fun thing in playing jazz guitar.

[neatomic]

i love jim hall...bickert...whew... i mean top faves..but when i think of pure comping...i think back of more trad chordal technique...one of the best of the remaining old school style few-james chirillo

here's an excellent primer-

cheers

[bengruven]

One of my favourite comping masters is Ed Bickert . The Ballad Artistry of Buddy Tate is a great album to listen to even just for comping alone:

Thanks for this one - always on the lookout for more Bickert and I didn't know about this one!

[Tal_175]

Here is a good article about Jim Hall's comping on Days of Wine and Roses along with a transcription of the comping:
Jim Hall’s Comping on “Days Of Wine And Roses” (A Jazz Notebook)

The recording discussed in the article:

[44lombard]

Here is a good article about Jim Hall's comping on Days of Wine and Roses along with a transcription of the comping:
Jim Hall’s Comping on “Days Of Wine And Roses” (A Jazz Notebook)

One nice thing about the relatively primitive mixing techniques of the early 1960s is that Jim Hall's comping sometimes get's shoved over into one channel, while the horn (Desmond, Farmer, Rollins) is panned hard in the other channel. It's easy to hear what Hall is doing by muting the horn channel. For example:

[Tal_175]

One nice thing about the relatively primitive mixing techniques of the early 1960s is that Jim Hall's comping sometimes get's shoved over into one channel, while the horn (Desmond, Farmer, Rollins) is panned hard in the other channel. It's easy to hear what Hall is doing by muting the horn channel. For example:

When I listen to these on my computer, both left and right channels seem to have the mixed recording, comping is not separated.

[44lombard]

When I listen to these on my computer, both left and right channels seem to have the mixed recording, comping is not separated.

You are right, the panning isn't 100%, and the horns bleed over a bit--moreso for the Art Farmer than the Rollins. If you listen to the Rollins audio, it's pretty obvious you aren't hearing the real stereo mix or a mono mix that would ever be released...Sonny sounds like he's off in another room playing quietly.

[Tal_175]

An interesting thing about transcribing comping seems to be that you still need to know the changes before hand just like when transcribing solos. Especially when transcribing a short (couple of bars) chord pattern. If you're transcribing a couple of choruses fully then changes can be figured out.

Comping and basslines do not always make the changes explicit but they rather get layered on top of the implied changes. For example the first chord of a tune I was transcribing today sounded clearly minor to me. When I figured out the voices it turned out to be Bb minMaj 7 and the bass played the note Bb on the first two beats. When I checked the tune, the first chord was Eb7. So Bb minMaj7 implies Eb7sus. Good luck figuring that the chord was Eb7 if you don't know the changes already. Even the bass line doesn't always give it away. But of course many chords are easier to figure out than in this example.

[rintincop]

Ray Brown , Herb Ellis, Monty Alexander Trios!