Transcribing and analyzing these comping excerpts was quite an important procedure for me. Putting each drummer under the microscope, allowed me to break down the huge amount of information (which each recording contained) into smaller pieces and eventually listen/look/understand it better.
Nevertheless, understanding is only one part of our topic. The most important is to go for some action.
How should one practice, so that he/she manages to play in this style?
Practicing the transcribed excerpts and slowly integrating the vocabulary of each drummer into my own playing would be the most obvious thing to do. I tried this method but I soon felt overwhelmed. I was practicing and practicing without progressing, until I realized that there were specific problems I should solve first.
After doing some self-evaluation I realized that I had three main things to work on: TIME, COORDINATION, PERFORMANCE