im listening to the great sonny stitt .i know birds approach was the same and the first of the two. it is so nice to hear them applying teriffic fill ins while playing the head of a song. the approach offers the listener an example of what type  of sound would go with the changes as they go along with the tune. just my 2 cents worth thx charlie.i was told that albert manglesdorf did the same but alas i have never heard this great trombonist.
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could you elaborate further--- do you mean they play the melody & put in fills as well? if so i often do this on piano. i usually play the fills quieter & therefor they create a sort of "other instrument".
i think it's very important to know the heads properly, and  to make sure that any embellishments/reharmonization you introduce don't interfere with your clear projection of the origianl melody. same goes with your left hand...keep it to an absolute minimum as it's not important. (good idea about thinking of "other instument" solart) especially take care with well known standard songs. (all the things, stella, funny valentine etc) try and think of every tune (and phrase within each tune) as having a 'point'... you aim should be to not 'miss the point'.

it's easy to make the mistake of learning tunes off a particular recording you have. eg. i learnt stella by starlight from miles 50's/60's  recordings. they embellished the tune so much i hadn't learnt the original tune properly, but was relying on their interpretations. practice getting the most out of just the single line melody, if it doesn't sound good on it's own it never will.  

don't rely on real books, they're often wrong, go back to the original sheet music or composers lead sheet if you can, and memorize them.
dear solart yes he plays the melody and then some appropriate fills before the next section of the melody . autumn in new york was what i was listening and it was very nice sounding indeed thx charlie
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