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There are many moments in the album (below) where Ed Bickert's comping goes to high registers and overlap with Buddy Tate's solo without drowning out Buddy Tate's lines. It all plays like a great, deliberate arrangement. The reason seems to be that Ed Bickerts dynamics are very carefully adjusted to Buddy Tate's phrasing. I don't hear people talk about this much but Ed Bickert shows that you don't have to avoid high registers as long as you can control going between the foreground (when there is space) and the background( when the soloist starts a phrase) with your dynamics.
Of course Buddy Tate is playing a tenor saxophone and often goes to low registers moreover the two instruments have very distinct timbres. But I don't think these are the reasons that this style of comping works here. I think it works because this is the style of comping Ed Bickert is a master at (which you can hear in his other albums).
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10-27-2022 09:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
Jim Hall often said to play with reserve so you have somewhere to go. When you're playing with a soloist, you have someone telling you where to go and they're very much playing as one. Ed's playing is spot on with time but he gives that assumption to the listener and finds the time sense of the soloist; enhances that.
Some really nice playing. Thanks for posting that.
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Yea tal... you're on to one of the techniques of better guitar comping. But Ed's rhythmic playing, or I should say just his attack locations are why the examples above work so well. His articulations are somewhat muffled because of his tone and voicings.
Obviously not a bad thing, it's his style and also just because of his choice of guitars etc... I love his comping and playing in general... thanks for posting.
The articulation thing is a very useful tool when comping... one of the better ways to shape the form and organization of playing. You organize it just like Form, rhythm, harmony and development of changes etc...
The organization repeats... and becomes another tool to develop. Just like adding chords, embellishments etc..
Again thanks for posting.
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
I think learning to play unaccompanied as a chord soloist really helps to prepare one to meet a soloist AS a soloist. If you learn the nuance of upper range content, you can offer that to a musical partner and meet them in their musical space.
Some teachers that teach rules that provide solidity and proficiency within a genre, but there are always examples of those who chose not to observe the sonic soundscapes created by rules they chose to break. Listening to Ed Bikert and Keith Jarrett, Jim Hall and Bill Evans, Mick Goodrick and Fred Hersch, they were all players that rewrote the rules for me. I listened and loved their music and the rule book gained a whole new perspective.
That's jazz, right?
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Although at times Ed Bickert is comping interactively with the soloist, other times it seems to me that his comping is informed by his knowledge of the tune and not by what the soloist is playing. Obviously the tune itself can be the thematic connection between the soloist and the rhythm section.
Last edited by Tal_175; 10-28-2022 at 04:32 PM.
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
Of course that's not considered a crime by the vast majority, but for players like Ed Bikert, Paul Desmond, Lee Konitz and Lester Young, the tune is your constant companion. It's the member of the band that informs the shape of the music itself.
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thanks , I hadn’t heard this album
Ed was a beautiful cat !
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Originally Posted by pingu
A really nice recording date. Great tunes.
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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They sound terrific together. In the parts I listened to I thought they made it work by (no particular order):
1. Both play sparsely. Buddy plays phrases that breathe. Ed tends to go up higher and plays more in the moments when Buddy is silent.
2. The instruments have such different sounds that the ear can more easily accept them being in the same register.
3. The album is ballads. I love this style of comping on ballads.
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