Sheets of sound

Sheets of sound was a term coined in 1958 by Down Beat magazine jazz critic Ira Gitler to describe a new style of jazz by saxophone musician John Coltrane. The term also refers to a period of Coltrane's music between 1958-1960.

Ira Gitler

• "As he learned harmonically from Davis and Monk, and developed his mechanical skills, a new more confident Coltrane emerged. He has used long lines and multinoted figures within these lines, but in 1958 he started playing sections that might be termed 'sheets of sound'."
  • "Trane On The Track". Down Beat, 1958.

Nat Hentoff

• "While he was with Miles, Coltrane was tagged with the phrase "sheets of sound." Jazz critic Ira Gitler had first used it. These "sheets of sound" were multinote hailstorms of dense textures that sound like a simultaneous series of waterfalls. "His continuous flow of ideas without stopping really hit me," Gitler said. "It was almost superhuman. The amount of energy he was using could have powered a spaceship."
  • New liner notes to Giant Steps (Deluxe edition), Sep, 1997.