Comping with Melodies

There is plenty of great resource material out there for learn how to comp in straight ahead jazz styles, with more coming out all the time.  But turning that material from an exercise on a page into real music can sometimes be a difficult leap.  One of my favorite ways of dealing with it is to transcribe the comping of great jazz musicians.  The obvious choice would be drummers like Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones (here's another), and Charlie Smith.  But you can also transcribe the comping of other rhythm section players, like this example of Bill Charlap.

 

But another way is to use actual melodies to your advantage.  Bebop and instrumental tunes work best for this, as vocal tunes and Great American Songbook repertoire tends to be too open to interpretation for this particular application.  Transcribe (or use a lead sheet) the heads of popular jazz standards.  Just the rhythm of the melody is fine - there's no need to worry about the pitches at this point - then play those figures on the drums.

 

Start by reading the resulting rhythms on the snare.  Then add the bass drum.  If you want to take it farther you could add the hi-hat, tom orchestrations, etc.  But if you listen to the examples linked above, the majority of straight ahead comping relies primarily on the snare and bass.  I like to isolate excerpts that I feel are most applicable and come up with various different orchestrations.

 

Here's an example using Charles Mingus' tune, "Moanin'".  At the top of the sheet is the full melody rhythm.  Below that I've taken individual phrases and written out four potential orchestrations for each.  These are, of course, just a few potential options, and you should come up with some of your own.  Mine lean a bit heavier on the snare than the bass drum, and don't use too many bass drum doubles, but again, you can do anything you like with it.