Question: Coltrane's "Sheets Of Sound"
Mike C.
with parts that I can answer. Mainly, someone talking about his "Sheets
Of Sound" period, and quoting "Jupiter" as an example of this era. I
know enough that this is not from said period, but in looking up more
information on the period, I'm unsure exactly what it refers to.
My understanding is that this is the period mainly from when Trane was
playing with Monk, in which he was playing incredibly fast scales over
the changes, playing as many scale notes over the chords as possible.
Kind of a jazz "shredder" idea.
However, the bio at johncoltrane.com cites that he "became known for
the three-on-one chord approach, and what has been called the 'sheets
of sound,' a method of playing multiple notes at one time." Now this
description sounds like his foray into multiphonics. I remember Trane
experimenting with harmonics on the "Coltrane Jazz" disc, but I thought
he gave up on that. I can actually hear him harmonizing with himself on
"Harmonique", but I don't remember him doing anything like that after
that disc.
So what exactly is the "Sheets Of Sound" period? Is it a scale-based
technique, or is it multiphonics? It certainly wasn't the avant garde
period, right?
Pete
effect of micro-changes within a chord in a chord change.....I'm not
quite sure how to describe that; on Nutty from "thelonious monk and
john coltrane" (an example of what I'm thinking of is specifically
around 1:50) he plays these enormous arpeggios extremely fast on top of
some of chords, and it sounds like the notes he's playing are outlining
ii-V-I's within each chord (three-on-one?), something like that. Im far
from knowleded on Coltrane's style. How close or far-off does this
sound? I'm thinking, if this is what he was doing, maybe it was born
from the Giant Steps idea where there's all those ii-V-I's of keys that
are separated by major 3rds, maybe he found a way to play those on top
of chords.
I have read a few things about how Monk showed him how to play more
than one note at a time, whatever the hell that means for a horn player
to do, heh.
zoot
multiple pitch notes are a different extended technique and even more
fascinating on brass. the idea is to sing a different note from the one
that is fingered. if you use the write notes and get them perfectly in
tune there will be a place where the two harmonic series cross and
reinforce each other giving the elusion of a third note. miles spoke of
a place where gill wrote that into a score in order to get an extra
high note.
i've always thought that sheets of sound is what harpists do.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Joerg Walther
> So what exactly is the "Sheets Of Sound" period? Is it a scale-based
> technique, or is it multiphonics? It certainly wasn't the avant garde
> period, right?
Right, it's the scaled-based thing. johncoltrane.com has it wrong.
-jw-
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And now for something completely different...
Jakob Hellberg
I have never heard of the multiphonics being referred to as the
"Sheets of sound" before. Maybe the writer means that the ears
perceive it as "multiple sounds". I always thought that the sheets of
sound referred to the playing he did with Monk and on some songs on
"Milestones" where he arpeggiates numerous related chords very fast
over the harmony...
Joerg Walther
> I always thought that the sheets of
> sound referred to the playing he did with Monk and on some songs on
> "Milestones" where he arpeggiates numerous related chords very fast
> over the harmony...
BTW, Just looked that up on Encarta: The term sheets of sound was coined
by critic Ira Gitler, who attributed it to the music Trane played
between 1956 and 58.
Ted Lesher
> On 11 Apr 2005 06:18:57 -0700, Jakob Hellberg wrote:
>
> > I always thought that the sheets of
> > sound referred to the playing he did with Monk and on some songs on
> > "Milestones" where he arpeggiates numerous related chords very fast
> > over the harmony...
>
> BTW, Just looked that up on Encarta: The term sheets of sound was coined
> by critic Ira Gitler, who attributed it to the music Trane played
> between 1956 and 58.
That is correct. Coltrane was developing a technique in which, rather than
playing a melodic line over a set of chords, he was attempting to play
complex related chords themselves through rapid arpeggiation (his
inspiration for this, believe it or not, has been attributed to harp music,
in which harpists strum extended chords). He reportedly practiced hours
every day using the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas
Slonimsky as a guide. The produce and critic Ira Gitler coined the phrase
"sheets of sound" to describe the results.
Incidentally, I knew Ira slightly around that time. We were driving back to
New York from the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival together when Ira mentioned
that Coltrane had been experimenting with the soprano saxophone lately. I
found this absolutely astonishing -- except for Steve Lacy, the soprano had
practically disappeared from jazz, and musicians of the time were not very
adventurous in deviating from typical bop instrumentation. A few months
later My Favorite Things came out, and the rest is history.
Ted Lesher
Guy Berger
>However, the bio at johncoltrane.com cites that he "became known for
>the three-on-one chord approach, and what has been called the 'sheets
>of sound,' a method of playing multiple notes at one time." Now this
>description sounds like his foray into multiphonics.
As other people have pointed out, the website's got this wrong. It's a
shame that they would screw up something like that, given that Alice and
Ravi are (I'm guessing) involved with setting up the website.
>I remember Trane experimenting with harmonics on the "Coltrane Jazz"
>disc, but I thought he gave up on that. I can actually hear him harmonizing
>with himself on "Harmonique", but I don't remember him doing anything like
>that after that disc.
No -- multiphonics is one of the most distinctive things about Trane's
playing in the 60s, becoming more common near the end of his career. I
can't think of any tunes besides "Harmonique" that explicitly work it into a
composition. FWIW, there's an early example of Trane experimenting with
this technique at the end of "While My Lady Sleeps", recorded in May of
1957.
Guy
Glenn Wilson
> later My Favorite Things came out, and the rest is history.
>
> Ted Lesher
Ted - something that's interesting about this - Trane actualy played soprano
on "The Blessing" with Don Cherry et. al before My Favorite Things. Of
course "The Avant Garde" wasn't released until 1964, so how would anyone
have known, except Ahmet Ertegun :) I wonder if Ira or anyone else was hip
to The Avant Garde at the time it was recorded.
Glenn
www.jazzmaniac.com
>
>
>
Ed Rhodes
<tedr...@sonnet.com> wrote:
>"Joerg Walther" wrote...
>>
>> BTW, Just looked that up on Encarta: The term sheets of sound was coined
>> by critic Ira Gitler, who attributed it to the music Trane played
>> between 1956 and 58.
>
>That is correct.
"About this time [when Coltrane returned to Miles Davis' band very
early in 1958], I was trying for a sweeping sound. I started
experimenting because I was striving for more individual development.
I even tried long, rapid lines that Ira Gitler termed "sheets of
sound" at the time. But actually, I was beginning to apply the
three-on-one chord approach, and at that time the tendency was to play
the entire scale of each chord. Therefore, they were usually played
fast and sounded like glisses.
"I found there were a certain number of chord progressions to play in
a given time, and sometimes what I played didn't work out in eighth
notes, 16th notes, or triplets. I had to put the notes in uneven
groups like fives and sevens in order to get them all in.
"I thought in groups of notes, not of one note at a time. I tried to
place these groups on the accents and emphasize the strong beats -
maybe on the 2 here and on 4 over at the end. I would set up the line
and drop groups of notes - a long line with accents dropped as I moved
along. Sometimes what I was doing clashed harmonically with the piano
- espcially if the pianist wasn't familiar with what I was doing - so
a lot of times I just strolled with bass and drums."
...as told by John Coltrane to Don DeMicheal and published in the
September 29, 1960 issue of Down Beat magazine.
Ed Rhodes
Kevin
I was just reading a Billy Taylor interview in the March 1996 (22:3)
issue of Cadence and in discussing the influence of Art Tatum he
relates the following:
When I asked Coltrane once about his "sheets of sound", he said "I
don't know why they call it that? It's really like Tatum. You know,
those glissando things?..." (page 18)
Kevin
Jasbird
<guy.ber...@ONyale.edu> wrote:
>Mike C. wrote:
>>However, the bio at johncoltrane.com cites that he "became known for
>>the three-on-one chord approach, and what has been called the 'sheets
>>of sound,' a method of playing multiple notes at one time." Now this
>>description sounds like his foray into multiphonics.
>
> As other people have pointed out, the website's got this wrong. It's a
>shame that they would screw up something like that, given that Alice and
>Ravi are (I'm guessing) involved with setting up the website.
Oh dear, the error is repeated elsewhere.
http://coltrane.room34.com/thesis.html
"It was made during a time of transition for Coltrane. While
under contract with Atlantic Records (1959-1961), he underwent
his "sheets of sound" phase, documented most extensively on his
1959 album Giant Steps."
Gary Hogan
Trane didn't invent the " sheets of sound " approach. I heard Getz
playing like that at the old Zardis in Hollywood... in 1954.
Mike O'Sullivan
>
> Trane didn't invent the " sheets of sound " approach. I heard Getz
> playing like that at the old Zardis in Hollywood... in 1954.
>
with his emphasis on his "beautiful sound" forget what a storming player
he originally was!
Henry Salvia
Any recordings that show off this side of Getz?
Henry Salvia.
JC Martin
I assume he's speaking of the band with Jimmy Raney and Horace Silver.
Getz used to play faster certainly but I don't know if I'd call his
playing "stormin'". Pretty laid-back bop IMO. I personally find his
later work more accomplished for the very reason that he found his true
vice on the tenor sax. And even probably his best playing from a
technical standpoint was on later albums like Sweet Rain and Captain Marvel.
-JC
Ed Rhodes
Getz was a fast player but his double timing...in 1954 or at any other
time...was quite different - harmonically and rhythmically - from what
Trane did in 1958 when Gitler coined the phrase. Getz was very
accomplished but he wasn't particularly unique. That kind of speed
playing traces back to 1946-46 with Teddy Edwards. Along the way many
players as otherwise different as James Moody, Harold Land, Johnny
Griffin, and Sonny Rollins used a similar approach. Trane was
different. Not faster...certainly not faster than Griffin...but quite
different.
Ed Rhodes