Entry · catalog no. 1850
comping
/ /ˈkɑmpɪŋ/ /KOMP-ing
verb · noun · Jazz bandstands — Harlem, 52nd Street, and beyond · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
Supporting a soloist with improvised chords and rhythmic punctuation — the pianist''s or guitarist''s art of conversation underneath the horn. Clipped from accompany, with complement folded in.
“Listen to how she''s comping behind the tenor — answering him, not just keeping time.”
Origin & Attribution
The working language of Black jazz bandstands. The practice runs back to 1920s syncopated chordal playing, and the clipped term settled in as swing hardened into bebop in the 1940s, when rhythm sections stopped keeping time and started talking back. Standard shop talk among musicians ever since.
1920s
Syncopated chordal accompaniment develops in early jazz
1940s
Bebop rhythm sections make comping a named, interactive art
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Jazz bandstands — Harlem, 52nd Street, and beyond · 1940s
Spoken by
Jazz musicians
$COMPINThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Standard86 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
40/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1940
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (comping chapters)
1989
■
+ Cite a sourceCarnegie Hall Timeline of African American Music, bebop rhythm-section practice
2020s
See also