thanks for the reply Mac.

To respond:
I should mention that I was talking about solo piano rather than accompaniment. I believe that you (usually) supply the root if there is no bass.
I suppose I have also been playing non jazz materials - mostly - but am now looking at jazz again.

Using the shells. I learnt these before, but they never seemed to 'arrive' in my playing, I struggle with using a third in the bass when there is a root as it becomes muddy. I do use thirds as passing notes if playing some kind of figure in the bass, all the scale tones are open to me this way.

Earwise I am ok. I use Earmaster and can identify any interval or standard chord reasonably swiftly, however I do realise that what your talking about is a different process - cerebrally.

thanks for the input, giving it further thought

Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k