For todays post I want to talk about another one of my favorite drummers and a way that he found to interact with the melody in a tasteful way. Philly Joe is most famous for his playing with Miles Davis's first great group. One of the things that made this group so influential was Philly Joe's ability to create a rhythmic dialogue with the melody instruments. The following exercise from my forthcoming book "Melodic Syncopation" is designed to help you develop the ability to comp in the spaces of the melody or "in the cracks".
Suggested Recording
Sonny Rollins, “Tenor Madness”
Exercise #8: Playing Time with Comping “In the Cracks”
Step 1: In this exercise we are going to explore a concept called playing “in the cracks” that is another central element of Philly Joe’s highly influential comping style. Playing in the cracks means to play comping patterns only when a soloist leaves space in their solo. This technique allows the soloist to play uncluttered lines, and lends itself to conversational back and forth between the soloist and the drummer. This conversation often takes on the form and characteristics of call and response . To develop this technique, you will practice singing the melody (the call), and only playing comping patterns (the response) during rests or notes held longer than a quarter note.
