Sheets of sound was a term coined in 1958 by ''

DownBeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Ch ...

'' magazine

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

critic Ira Gitler to describe the new, unique improvisational style of

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

. Gitler first used the term on the liner notes for ''

Soultrane ''Soultrane'' is the fourth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released in 1958 on Prestige Records, catalogue 7142. It was recorded at the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey, three days after a Columbia Records sess ...

'' (1958).Porter 1999, p. 319.

Style

Coltrane, a saxophonist, employed extremely dense improvisational yet patterned lines consisting of high speed

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

s and scale patterns played in rapid succession: hundreds of notes running from the lowest to highest registers.Porter 1999, p. 111. The lines are often faster than

sixteenth note Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver ( British) is a note played for half the du ...

s, consisting of quintuplets, septuplets, etc., and can sound like

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the ...

s. Coltrane invented this style while playing with

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...

and developed it further when he returned to

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

' group.

Vertical approach

Coltrane used the "sheets of sound" lines to liquidise and loosen the strict chords, modes, and harmonies of

Hard Bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

, whilst still adhering to them (at this stage in his musical development).Coltrane 1960 Playing with the Miles Davis groups, in particular, gave Coltrane the free musical space in which to apply harmonic ideas to stacked chords and substitutions.Porter 1999, p. 160. Coltrane states; "In fact, due to the direct and free-flowing lines of his avis'smusic, I found it easy to apply the harmonic ideas that I had. I could stack up chords-say, on a C7, I sometimes superimposed an Eb7, up to an F#7, esolvingdown to an F. That way I could play three chords on one..." Further, this open approach allowed Coltrane to arpeggiate three chords simultaneously, a style Monk initially taught Coltrane. The "three-on-one chord approach" gave the music a fluid, sweeping sound that was harmonically vertical. Concepts of vertical (chordal) versus horizontal (melody) are key ideas in the work of George Russell, whom Coltrane had recorded with in September 1958.Porter 1999, p. 160. This approach reflected Coltrane's fascination with third relations. Sometimes he used diminished chords, other times he used augmented chords. At times, Coltrane might use scales or licks in the passing keys instead of arpeggios. Coltrane employed these harmonic ideas during his "sheets of sound" stage in 1958. At other times, he would simply play rapid patterns of diminished-scales.Porter 1999, p. 161.

Usage

The "sheets of sound" approach can be heard as early as the 1957 collaboration with Monk in solos like the one on "Trinkle, Tinkle" from the album ''

Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane ''Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane'' is a 1961 album by Thelonious Monk issued on Jazzland Records, a subsidiary of Riverside Records. It consists of material recorded four years earlier when Monk worked extensively with John Coltrane, issued ...

''. Coltrane's live performance of "If I Were a Bell" with the Miles Davis sextet on September 9, 1958, well exemplifies his use of the "sheets of sound" during this stage of his career. In "Trane on the Track", an article published on October 16, 1958 in ''DownBeat'' magazine, Coltrane spoke to Ira Gitler about the sheets of sound, telling him, "Now it is not a thing of beauty, and the only way it would be justified is if it becomes that. If I can't work it through, I will drop it." Coltrane began using the style intermittently in 1959, preferring to incorporate it into his solos in a less abrupt manner.Porter 1999, pp. 132-134.

Selected recordings

*''

John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio ''John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio'' is the third studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane. It was issued in early 1958 on Prestige Records, catalogue 7123. It was recorded at the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey. In ...

'' (1958) *'' Milestones'' (1958) *''

'' (1958) *''

Kind of Blue ''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Co ...

'' (1959) *'' Giant Steps'' (1960) *''

Bags & Trane ''Bags & Trane'' is an album credited to jazz musicians Milt Jackson and John Coltrane, released in 1961 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD 1368. Taking its title from Jackson and Coltrane's nicknames, it is the only collaborative record by the t ...

'' (1961) *''

Miles & Monk at Newport ''Miles & Monk at Newport'' is a split album featuring separate performances by the Miles Davis sextet and the Thelonious Monk quartet at the Newport Jazz Festival, recorded in 1958 and 1963, respectively, and released in June 1964 by Columbia r ...

'' (1964) *''

'58 Miles Featuring Stella By Starlight ''1958 Miles'' is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1974 on CBS/Sony. Recording sessions for tracks that appear on the album took place on May 26, 1958, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio and September 9, 1958, ...

'' (1974) *'' Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall'' (2005)

Notes

References