[Dixielandjazz] Comp or comping was stride v. comp

[Stephen Barbone]

From: "Jim Leschke" <leschke at charter.net> wrote:
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Re: stride vs. comp

So what's "comp"?  No kidding.

Hi Jim:

Comping is when the primary chord instrument plays the chords behind a
soloist. The guitar, or piano, or banjo comps behind the trumpet solo.
As opposed to playing his/her own solo.

Therefore if the chord instrument doesn't know how to comp properly,
he/she gets in the way of the soloist and takes away certain note or run
choices.

Proper comping is when the chord instrument supplies what the soloist
wants to hear. In most cases, the chord changes of the tune with minimum
embellishment.

Bad comping is when the chord instrument puts in too much, plays a solo
underneath the soloist, or otherwise distracts the soloist so that a
poorer performance results.

Not sure, but "comp" is probably short for "compliment" and that is what
the comper is supposed to do.

One of my heroes, T. Monk often said to his horn men. "Don't follow me,
I'm supposed to be following you." He knew how to feed the chords to the
soloist so that the soloist had free rein as to what he/she improvised.

That's it in a nutshell.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone