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Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
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11-10-2014 01:58 PM
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Well, rarely are voicings specified on a big band chart...
Freddie Green was improvising a lot really...sometimes playing one percussive note that wove through the progression...comping takes many forms...it just means "accompanyment," after all.
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Fair enough. Freddie Green was keeping rhythm. He played very inventive 4 to the bar behind the horn section. ..acoustically.
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Well...i think generally people think of comping as quiet, voice led, pick and fingers or fingers only chords...but comping is short for accompanyment...and freddie wasn't playing written in stone parts...
I mean, I'm gonna play with an organ player tomorrow...i'm gonna pump 3rds and 7ths in time with the groove of his foot pedals...sometimes just playing one note even....am i not comping?
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
I too generally think of comping as something less than banging chords. It's actually a painful reality for me. But . . I'm workin' on it. ;-)
Definitions for comping? Composing, complimenting, accompanying.?.? Any and all of the above? It's truly an art form. Especially when it harmonically follows the chord structure and the melody with syncopated rhythmic flow. It's an art form, man. And I truly believe that doing it to the level of a Jim Hall, Joe Pass, Vinny Corrao . . etc., takes far more discipline and knowledge than blowing.
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I'm gonna be honest Patrick, it sounds to me like you don't know much about playing big band guitar.
It's a hell of a lot more than "banging out chords."
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Depends on your definition of creative, really. Yeah, a big band player won't have as much rhythmic freedom...or be able to play as many notes. But that's not all there is to creativity...
Set a metronome to 180 or so...how many ways can you get through a blues, playing one or two notes per beat, four beats to a bar? Not as easy as you think.
And then of course, you have to ask yourself what good comping is, if you follow your definition...is it finding creative voicings?Last edited by mr. beaumont; 11-13-2014 at 12:29 AM.
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There's also a distinction to be be made between playing the arranged portions of a big band chart and playing behind a soloist in a big band.
I can tell you that everyone in our big band gets visibly annoyed when our pianist treats the comping role during solos as anything other than jazz combo style comping. That is exactly what a big band becomes during solos...a jazz combo. Sure, on the last solo there will often be a "backgrounds" chorus, but generally in a big band when someone is playing a solo, a rhythm section player must go into "jazz combo" mode and must play what is appropriate...complement the soloist. Don't follow the chart. For the love of jazz, don't follow the damn chart.
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Originally Posted by coolvinny
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Does "comping" stand for "accompaniment", or for "compliment"?
On purely abstract base, no practical examples, nor experience, I'm for both, where accompaniment should compliment.
Also, the way I see it, it is also for "completing", where you play what you think is missing.
if straight beat, 4 on the floor is comping. If something's not loud enough, doubling is and so on.
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Originally Posted by Vladan
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Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
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Resurrecting this zombie thread because I'm learning the first trumpet solo on guitar. Listening to these guys' version of "So What" is... I don't think it's very good, but I share the pain of trying to emulate Miles Davis's phrasing. It's really such a beautiful restrained yet brimming-with-attitude, delicate yet tough, just such a beautiful solo. But his timing seems really unique to me. He's usually behind the beat in some way it seems to me, and these guys just don't quite get it. But who can? God bless 'em.
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We need a few zombie threads before Halloween.
Funny listening to the recreation in the original post. One’s brain is flummoxed trying to figure out what’s not quite the same as the recording most of us have heard probably hundreds of times. Maybe our turntable motor is running funny??
One thing is for sure. Relistening to the original, and in fact virtually all the recordings of Miles and Trane and Cannonball, one is struck again and again at their genius at phrasing and timing and crafting a melodic line. And the fact they all come together seamlessly into this wonderful gumbo stew of an album…
Accept no substitutes.
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It is nearly impossible to emulate horns on guitar, this is my biggest frustration regarding guitar play. Neither trumpet neither sax.
Try once Dexter Gordon then you will get know what is frustration :-) The phrases coming out from my hand and guitar meaningless compared to Dexter.
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