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Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s

Artist: Miles Davis
Title: Sketches of Spain
Released: 1959
Label: Columbia Records
Time: 41:22
Producer(s): Teo Macero, Phil Schaap, Irwing Towsend
Appears with:
Category: Jazz
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Purchase date:  2000
Price in €: 10,99
Web address: www.milesdavis.com

 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo) - 16:19
[2] Will O' the Wisp (De Falla) - 3:47
[3] Pan Piper (Evans) - 3:52
[4] Saeta (Evans) - 5:06
[5] Solea (Evans) - 12:15 
 

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Miles Davis - Trumpet, Flagoelet

Johnny Coles - Trumpet
Elvin Jones - Percussion
Taft Jordan - Trumpet
Frank Rehak - Trombone
Ernie Royal - Trumpet
Jimmy Cobb - Drums
Danny Bank - Bass, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Billy Barber - Tuba
John Barrows - French Horn
Albert Block - Flute
James Buffington - French Horn
Eddie Caine - Flute, Flugelhorn
Paul Chambers - Bass
Earl Chapin - French Horn
Gil Evans - Arranger, Conductor
Harold Feldman - Clarinet, Flute, Oboe
Bernie Glow - Trumpet
Jack Knitzer - Bassoon
Jose Mangual - Percussion
Jimmy McAllister - Tuba
Tony Miranda - French Horn
Louis Mucci - Trumpet
Romeo Penque - Oboe
Janet Putnam - Harp
Dick Hixon - Trombone
Joe Singer - French Horn
Al Block - Tuba, Oboe

Nat Hentoff - Liner Notes
Fred Plaut - Engineer
Phil Schaap - Liner Notes, Digital Mastering, Remastering
Vernon Smith - Photography
Mark Wilder - Digital Mastering
Tom "Curly" Ruff - Engineer
Seth Rothstein - Director
Howard Fritzson - Art Direction
Randall Martin - Design
Rene Arsenault - Associate Producer

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s

The crown jewel of the epic Evans/Davis triptych that beganwith MILES AHEAD and PORGY AND BESS, SKETCHES OF SPAIN is as emotionally compelling as any performance in the trumpeter's remarkable body of works. Combining as it does the emotional gravity of two cultures--the deep song of flamenco musicand the rich lament of the blues--SKETCHES OF SPAIN is a musical hybrid of enormous power and beauty. Gil Evans' immense canvas of orchestral colours inspires some of Davis' most deeply felt solo flights. He paints vast vistas of velvety, shimmering night sounds, and through it all runs the mountainous backbone of Spain's native rhythms and chants. The centrepiece of SKETCHES OF SPAIN is the Evans/Davis treatmentof the second movement of Rodrigo's "Concierto De Aranjuez". Evans' charts engage Davis in a shifting, insistent dialogue, italicising the trumpeter's subtle variations and timbral ecstasies with magnificent orchestral flourishes. The surreal patina of three flutes and harp, high muted trumpets andwoodwinds, and subterranean trombones, French horns and tuba that define one of the main variations on the theme, is a majestic foil for Davis' expressive tones. Gil Evans liked to say that after Louis Armstrong, no one had affected thesound of the trumpet like Miles Davis. Miles fashioned a vibrato-less, introspective brass cry, made all the more lovely by his lush use of the middle and lower registers. Davis' manipulation of pitch on "Saeta" and "Solea" is so idiomatic, so vocalised, so full of revel and lament, it pierces yourheart with heroic resignation and longing. SKETCHES OF SPAIN stands alone as one of the pillars of modern music.



The third and final of the great Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaborations of 1957-59 was also their most ambitious. This set finds Davis in the forefront improvising on two numbers associated with Spanish music and three Evans compositions in that idiom. Much of the music is quite dramatic and emotional (notably "Saeta") and Davis plays at his best throughout, really stretching the boundaries of jazz. The 1997 CD reissue adds the brief "Song of Our Country" plus an alternate take of "Concierto De Aranjuez" to the original program.

Scott Yanow, All-Music Guide



"...their masterwork is undoubtedly 'Sketches of Spain', a work of unparalleled grace and lyricism. (A concert rendition of its "Concierto de Aranjuez" appears on 'Live Miles'.

ROLLING STONE ALBUM GUIDE *****



Miles Davis's impact on jazz is almost incalculable. From his early days as a sideman for Charlie Parker, through his groundbreaking Birth of the Cool sessions, to his stunning small groups of the '50s and '60s, through to his electric renaissance, the trumpeter, bandleader, and composer has left a deep mark on all who came after. He is one of jazz's true giants. Sketches of Spain, though one of Davis's most commercially successful sessions, is also one of his most controversial. Re-teaming with arranger and composer Gil Evans, who played such a pivotal role in Davis's 1949 Birth of the Cool recordings, Davis recorded a series of large group albums beginning in the late '50s, including Porgy and Bess, Miles Ahead, and Quiet Nights. Sketches of Spain, with its emphasis on flamenco, rich orchestrations, and relaxed tempos, is certainly one of Davis's most mellow recordings (he even works out on fluegelhorn), and proved to have broad appeal. To some critics, however, the project was "elevated elevator music." An expanded version of the album, featuring alternative tracks and unreleased material, was issued in 1997 by Columbia Legacy.

Fred Goodman, Amazon.com



The last full-fledged collaboration between trumpeter Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans is as extraordinary as their acclaimed earlier works, MILES AHEAD and PORGY AND BESS. In fact, SKETCHES OF SPAIN contains some of Davis's most expressive horn work: The melancholy nature of the Iberian-style material, and Evans's deeply felt writing, inspire a palpably mournful sound from the master trumpeter. "Saeta," in particular, features a wrenching Davis solo whose display of naked emotion is almost too painful to bear yet too compelling to turn away from. The album's centerpiece, an adaptation of Roderigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," strikingly sets Evans's dramatic tonal colors off Davis's yearning melodic statements. Supported by an expanded jazz ensemble, and sharing the spotlight with another creative genius, Davis is still able to turn SKETCHES OF SPAIN into one of his most personal and most triumphant projects.

Steve Futterman, Barnes & Noble



Along with Kind of Blue, In a Silent Way, and Round About Midnight, Sketches of Spain is one of Miles Davis' most enduring and innovative achievements. Recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 -- after Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley had left the band -- Miles teamed with British arranger Gil Evans for the third time. Davis brought Evans the album's signature piece, "Concierto de Aranjuez," after hearing a classical version of it at bassist Joe Mondragon's house. Evans was as taken with it as Miles and set about to create an entire album of material around it. The result is a masterpiece of modern art. On the "Concierto," Evans' arrangement provided an orchestra and jazz band -- Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and Elvin Jones -- the opportunity to record a classical work as it was. The piece, with its stunning colors and intricate yet transcendent adagio, played by Davis on a flügelhorn with a Harmon mute, is one of the most memorable works to come from popular culture in the 20th century. Davis' control over his instrument is singular, and Evans' conducting is flawless. Also notable are "Saeta," with one of the most amazing technical solos of Davis' career, and the album's closer, "Solea," which is conceptually a narrative piece, based on an Andalusian folk song, about a woman who encounters the procession taking Christ to Calvary. She sings the narrative of his passion and the procession -- or parade -- with full brass accompaniment moves on. Cobb and Jones, with flamenco-flavored percussion, are particularly wonderful here, as they allow the orchestra to indulge in the lushly passionate arrangement Evans provided to accompany Davis, who was clearly at his most challenged here, though he delivers with grace and verve. Sketches of Spain is the most luxuriant and stridently romantic recording Davis ever made. To listen to it in the 21st century is still a spine-tingling experience as one encounters a multitude of timbres, tonalities, and harmonic structures seldom found in the music called jazz.

Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
 

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