Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium – convened by IICSI

“Sheets of Sound: Jazz, Improvisation, and Liner Notes” • presented in partnership with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI)
September 11-13, 2024. ImprovLab, University of Guelph.

In what ways have liner notes shaped the way the music is received? To what extent do liner notes contribute to the ways in which we negotiate and construct meaning about the music, how we understand history, how and why we listen? In what ways have digital dissemination and streaming services disrupted our notions of liner notes? And how has this shifted listener/audience understanding about their favourite artists?

In his liner notes for John Coltrane’s 1958 recording Soultrane, jazz critic Ira Gitler famously coined the phrase “sheets of sound” to describe Coltrane’s unique style of improvisational playing. It’s an apt phrase not only for attempting to capture in writing the spirit and energy of Coltrane’s distinctive style, but also for acting as a metaphoric descriptor for the very genre of liner notes. As an important part of the history of jazz and creative improvised music, liner notes might themselves be considered as something akin to “sheets of sound” that have played a vital role in shaping our understanding of the music.

Citing the “far-out notes produced by Sun Ra, John Coltrane,” and others, Daphne Brooks in her book Liner Notes for the Revolution explains that “liner notes hold out the possibility of operating as critical, fictional, or experimental works of writing in and of themselves. Conventional liner notes,” she suggests, “often walk a fine line between pedagogy and socialization, between sociohistorical and cultural reportage and heuristic conditioning (here’s how and why to love the artist in question). The most ambitious notes strive toward the narrative realization, or the narrative reimagining, of a sonic collection of songs altogether.” What, then, does it mean to engage in a narrative realization or reimagining of music? What are some of the critical, fictional, conceptual, or experimental forms and practices being advanced by writers of liner notes? What is it like to hear about the music from the artist’s perspective, and how might this shape the listener’s sonic experience? What is the future of liner notes in an age dominated by the digital delivery and dissemination of music? Does writing liner notes constitute a lost art or is the practice enjoying a resurgence? In what ways do archived/archival forms of liner notes play into thinking and writing about jazz and creative improvised music today? And what roles do artwork, design and layout play in the presentation and impact of liner notes and the reception of an album?

This year’s edition of The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium showcases panels, workshops, and artistic presentations that creatively respond to these tasks, and that take up the question of what it means to use the liner note genre to write about jazz and creative improvised music.

Featuring keynote presentations by Daphne Brooks and Ashley Kahn, and a plenary conversation between Darius Jones and Harmony Holiday.

Visit IICSI’s Colloquium Website for the full schedule details.