hey zerozero,
check out the jazz study group: autumn leaves thread here in the adult beginners forum. i think a lot of what you are asking is addressed there.
Dave, have you seen Voicings for Jazz Keyboard by Frank Mantooth. It's an oldie. I just dug it out from the back of my stack of books I put away when they were a bit ahead of me some time ago. It's got some really good stuff on "detertializing" voicings, and good voice leading. I'm working through the section on generic voicings, which stacks major chords down from the 5th or root, and minor chords down from the 3rd, in perfect 4th intervals, allowing for a lot of common chord tones being retained...dominant 7ths are stacked down the same as majors in the right hand, but in the left hand, the 3rd and 7th are utilized. These are 5 note voicings...2 in the left, 3 in the right.
Very nice, and this time I get it.
The next lesson is on the "miracle voicings" (something Willie Myette also addresses in his online course), 5 note chords which are stacked down by a major 3rd and perfect 4ths and end up creating a chord which serves 5 different functions.
I love this stuff, ever since I figured out that there are really only 3 diminished 7th chords, all the other ones are built on inversions of the first 3.