About this project
Liner Notes is a jazz-appreciation journal — a warm, rigorous guide to the music itself: its styles and eras, how the instruments work, how to listen, the culture of the records, and the rooms the music lives in.
The name comes from the essay on the back of a record sleeve. The liner note is criticism at its most hospitable: it assumes you're about to have an experience, and offers to sit beside you. That's the register we aim for — cratedigger warmth, no snobbery, no homework required.
Some things this site deliberately is not. It is not a tribute page, a fan site, or a biography of any musician. Real musicians are named only where honest music history and criticism requires it — sparingly, factually, and never as the subject of the site. Our photography shows instruments, records, sleeves, and rooms. Never people, never faces.
The journal is supported by a small circle of backers — the table by the door — who keep the project independent and the pages free of advertising clutter. Supporters never influence what gets written, and their cards are kept well away from the music.
An independent jazz-appreciation project. Not affiliated with any artist, label, or estate.