Product Description

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.

Track Listing

1. Concerto de aranjuez
2. Will o' the wisp
3. Pan piper
4. Saeta
5. Solea
6. Song of our country
7. Concierto de Aranjuez (2)
8. Concierto de Aranjuez (3)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14245 in Music
• Released on: 1997-10-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 1950s and 1960s, 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 1950s, 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". -- Fred Goodman

Customer Reviews

Vastly overrated; mostly quite dull
'Sketches of Spain' is one of those albums that, for some reason, has been talked up so much over the decades that it has now become something that people buy, and say they love, simply because that's what's expected.
A lot of Davis' albums fall into this category - 'On The Corner' is another good example - an almost unlistenable album that many self-conscious music-lovers profess to 'get' when, in reality, they would only be able to tolerate listening to it a few times before putting it away for good (in a smugly conspicuous position, I might add) in the hope that they can impress their friends by owning it.
OK, I'm being a bit extreme here, 'Sketches of Spain' is far from unlistenable; in many places it is very tender and beautiful, in others there is superb tension and release, but it is most certainly NOT one of the all-time greatest jazz records.
More often than not it is tedious, and Davis' playing too unfocused - as though he wasn't quite sure exactly what to play in parts. The orchestral accompaniment at times is just brilliant, but at others strays too far into muzak territory or abstraction just for the sake of it.
I guess it's a mixed bag really.
If you want to hear the best that the Davis-Evans collaboration produced you'd be far better off with 'Miles Ahead' or 'Porgy & Bess', and if you want to hear Spanish classical/folk music rendered perfectly, then get hold of a few decent recordings of music by Rodrigo (there are a few budget-priced CDs on Naxos which are a good start).
If you're a big Miles fan then you'll no doubt want to own this - it is certainly a distinctive disc in the whole Davis canon - but don't try to fool yourself or convince others that it is worthy of the 5 stars that every man and his dog throw at it.

miles en espanol
This is a great rendition of various Spanish pieces,most notably "Concierto de Aranjuez" by Joaquin Rodrigo.Miles and Gil Evans seem to really enjoy this,and while it's not as cutting edge as "Kind Of Blue",it's great fun.By the by,Rodrigo,when he heard Miles' version,hated it.No pleasing some people!!

Miles fuses the sounds of Spain with American Jazz
Sketches of Spain is one of my favorite of Miles Davis' fusion works. Here, he fuses the sounds of Spain with American Jazz. It's not nearly as radical as much of his fusion work, but it's not likely to be heard on an elevator either. If you've enjoyed Miles' easiest-to-listen-to-albums (for example, Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool), and you want to be challenged just a little more, take a listen to Sketches of Spain.