I'm working on understanding the guitar comping for the song 'The Breeze and I' (Willis Jackson, Pat Martino version). The tune is moving really fast and the comping is buried in the mix (a lot of organ overlaying it). Are there transcriptions of tunes that approximate those chord changes and fast swinging comping? I'm digging it out, but it's a tough road.
You just have to begin to recognize chord progressions that get used over and over again. I’m listening to it in my car and it’s based on two sections. The first half is F major seven for four measures to E flat seven for two measures. The second half is just a turn around G-7 to C7 then a A-7 to D7. Work on your ear training as much as you can. I practice it almost every second of every day. Anytime I hear music in my car or in a restaurant I am always trying to figure out the chord progressions. Melodies are easier because you can sing those, you can’t sing chord progressions so you have to get good at recognizing harmonic movement. The key is to listen to the bass, from there it’s just a matter of figuring out what the chord quality is. After a while you just get good at listening to them as a whole. For instance the progression in the second half is just a turn around and I have heard that thousands of times. By the way, Pat sounds incredible and this he is just untouchable.