comping
n.— «Hutcherson delivered some of his best work on this tune as he played the straight man to the G-men (Garrett and Gonzalez). Refusing to get caught up in a contest of speed or strength, the wily vet relied on his smarts as he added small, yet significant, bits of color to the music. It’s known in jazz as “comping”—and few do it as well as Hutcherson.» —“Kenny Garrett a whirlwind in Oakland” by Jim Harrington Mercury News (San Jose, California) Jan. 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin. A new book argues that this rigorous curriculum actually nurtured the creativity that later flourished...