Ex. 1. Thinking modally gives you the option of making your comping sound melodic. Let’s say you’re playing a tune in Dm7. Take a simple melody within the D dorian mode (top staff) and harmonize it using fourths and thirds (bottom staves). Then move it up and down the scale parallel with the top melody, fingering the chords so as to connect them as much as possible. Don’t worry about dissonance on some voicings — that’s part of the modal sound.
Ex. 2. Bill Evans put the technique in Example 1 to good use all over Kind of Blue. Here he used repeated rhythms and a rising and falling melodic figure harmonized by parallel chords, on Cannonball’s second chorus on “So What.” Choose your fingering so you can play legato, and lay that triplet back.
Ex. 3. Trane’s solo on “So What” became busy and intense, so Bill simplified using quick staccato stabs, and smaller, tighter voicings. He grabbed a couple of cool intervals and structures, including some major and minor seconds in bars 3 and 4. This comping technique is both melodic and rhythmic, yet stays unobtrusive under the soaring sax solo.
Ex. 4. On “All Blues,” Bill demonstrated his mastery of phrasing and articulation by expanding and developing the main riff as he comped. He really lays it down behind Cannonball’s third chorus, as you see here. It’s in the pocket: Punchy, crisp, and fluid, and he plays around with the syncopation and the long and short phrasing throughout this chorus, and the rest of the tune.