Let's start off by remembering this. A more advanced player plays fewer roots than a beginner. Understanding harmony is to understand that a root is less important than you would think in terms of displaying the harmony. The 5th is the same. They are sort of always there if you're moving harmony and if you've stated the harmony. By that I mean once you've played through the tune, the harmony is there. The audience has an idea of the harmony and can do some of the work next time around. So this means as vibe players we can play harmony without the root or 5th a lot of the time, especially for certain chords. 

Add a bass player to the mix and we're simply being redundant. The bass player is the bottom of the harmony. If you play a C, E and G thinking about a C major triad and then the bass player plays a low A. Guess what, he just made your C triad into an A minor chord. So he's got the functional part of all this, let him have it. You color the chords (6th, 9ths, etc.) and make everything sound simple. Let's study rootless voicings!