Spanish classical musicWEB, Shera, Michael, JJ 10/60: Miles Davis â€“ Sketches of Spain,jazzjournal.co.uk/2020/10/22/jj-10-60-miles-davis-sketches-of-spain/, Jazz Journal, January 19, 2023, October 22, 2020,

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Columbia Records>Columbia| producer = Teo Macero

Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet>Workin’| prev_year = 1960

Steamin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet>Steamin’| next_year = 1961}}Sketches of Spain is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City. An extended version of the second movement of JoaquÃn Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) is included, as well as a piece called “Will o’ the Wisp”, from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El amor brujo (1914â€“1915). Sketches of Spain is regarded as an exemplary recording of third stream, a musical fusion of jazz, European classical, and styles from world music.

Background

Davis’s wife Frances Davis insisted he accompany her to a performance by flamenco dancer Roberto Iglesias. Inspired by the performance, Davis bought every flamenco album he could get at Colony Records shop in New York City.MAGAZINE, Mitchell, Gail, May 26, 2001, Wife and Muse, Frances Davis Recalls Life with Miles,www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/00s/2001/BB-2001-05-26.pdf, Billboard, 113, 21, 68, May 19, 2024, World Radio History, The album pairs Davis with arranger and composer Gil Evans, with whom he had collaborated on several other projects, on a program of compositions largely derived from the Spanish folk tradition. Evans explained: [We] hadn’t intended to make a Spanish album. We were just going to do the Concierto de Aranjuez. A friend of Miles gave him the only album in existence with that piece. He brought it back to New York and I copied the music off the record because there was no score. By the time we did that, we began to listen to other folk music, music played in clubs in Spain... So we learned a lot from that and it ended up being a Spanish album. The Rodrigo, the melody is so beautiful. It’s such a strong song. I was so thrilled with that.The folk songs in the album were inspired by recordings made by Alan Lomax in Galicia and Andalusia, which were released in 1955 by Columbia Masterworks.BOOK, Szwed, John, The Man Who Recorded the World: A Biography of Alan Lomax, 2011, Arrow Books, London, UK, 275,books.google.com/books?id=OMCBOAA6Vr0C, 9781448107384, Lomax, Alan (ed.) (1955). The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music â€“ Volume XIII: Spain. Columbia Masterworks.

Concierto de Aranjuez

The opening piece, taking up almost half the record, is an arrangement by Evans and Davis of the adagio movement of Concierto de Aranjuez, a concerto for guitar by the contemporary Spanish composer JoaquÃn Rodrigo. Following the faithful introduction of the concerto’s guitar melody on flugelhorn, Evans’ arrangement turns into a “quasi-symphonic, quasi-jazz world of sound”, according to his biographer. The middle of the piece contains a “chorus” by Evans unrelated to the concerto but “echoed” in the other pieces on the album.Crease, Stephanie Stein (2003). Gil Evans: Out of the Cool: His Life and Music. Chicago Review Press; p. 207. {{ISBN|9781556524936}} The original melody then reappears in a darker mode.Davis plays flugelhorn and later trumpet, attempting to connect the various settings musically. Davis commented at rehearsal, “The thing I have to do now is make things connect, make them mean something in what I play around it”.Chambers, Jack (1998). Milestones: The Music And Times Of Miles Davis. Da Capo Press; pp. 10â€“11. Davis thought the concerto’s adagio melody was “so strong” that “the softer you play it, the stronger it gets, and the stronger you play it, the weaker it gets”, and Evans concurred.According to Davis’ biographer Chambers, the contemporary critical response to the arrangement was not surprising, especially given the scarcity of anything resembling a jazz rhythm in most of the piece. Martin Williams wrote that “the recording is something of a curiosity and a failure, as I think a comparison with any good performance of the movement by a classical guitarist would confirm”. The composer Rodrigo was also not impressed, but royalties from the arrangement brought him “a lot of money”, according to Evans.

Critical reception

{{Album ratings| rev1 = AllMusic

class=album

Sketches of Spain>tab=review

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access-date=15 September 2005 }}| rev2 = DownBeat

5|5}}| rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

AUTHOR-LINK=COLIN LARKIN

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CHAPTER=MILES DAVIS, MusicHound, | rev5 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz

3.5

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PAGE=272, The Penguin Guide to Jazz, | rev6 = Pitchfork Media

PITCHFORK MEDIA

>DATE=OCTOBER 1997

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SKETCHES OF SPAIN > ALBUM REVIEW >URL=HTTP://PITCHFORKMEDIA.COM/RECORD-REVIEWS/D/DAVIS_MILES/SKETCHES-OF-SPAIN.SHTM

ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20051103083341/HTTP://WWW.PITCHFORKMEDIA.COM/RECORD-REVIEWS/D/DAVIS_MILES/SKETCHES-OF-SPAIN.SHTML, 3 November 2005, | rev7 = PopMatters

DATE=JUNE 23, 2009

TITLE=MILES DAVIS: SKETCHES OF SPAIN (LEGACY EDITION)

POPMATTERS>ACCESS-DATE=MAY 22, 2016,

Q (magazine)>Q

5|5}}| rev9 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

214â€“217 >EDITOR1-LAST=BRACKETT

EDITOR2-LAST=HOARD

EDITOR2-FIRST=CHRISTIAN

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TITLE=THE NEW ROLLING STONE ALBUM GUIDE

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ACCESS-DATE=5 APRIL 2010, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, | rev10 = Sputnikmusic

DATE=NOVEMBER 16, 2006

TITLE=MILES DAVIS - SKETCHES OF SPAIN (ALBUM REVIEW 2)

ACCESS-DATE=MAY 22, 2016, }}In a contemporary review for DownBeat, Bill Mathieu hailed Sketches of Spain as one of the 20th century’s most important musical works so far and a highly intellectual yet passionate record. He found Evans’s compositions extremely well crafted and Davis’s playing intelligently devised, concluding in his review, “if there is to be a new jazz, a shape of things to come, then this is the beginning.“BOOK, Alkyer, Frank, Enright, Ed, Koransky, Jason, 2007, The Miles Davis Reader, Hal Leonard, 978-1423430766, 213â€“215,archive.org/details/downbeathalloffa00fran/page/213, Replying to suggestions that Sketches of Spain was something other than jazz, Davis said “it’s music, and I like it.“BOOK, 356 | Sketches of Spain - Miles Davis,www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/sketches-of-spain-miles-davis-19691231, 25 May 2006, Levy, Joe, Steven Van Zandt, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 2005, 3rd, 2006, Turnaround, London, 1-932958-61-4, 70672814, RS500, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), J. D. Considine called it “a work of unparalleled grace and lyricism,” while Q magazine said it “took orchestral jazz in a new direction.“JOURNAL, Q (magazine), Q, London, Review: Sketches of Spain, 134, January 2000, Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic about the record and recalled being a young listener when it was released: “In 1960 [it] catapulted Davis into the favor of the kind of man who reads Playboy and initiated in me one phase of the disillusionment with jazz that resulted in my return to rock and roll.“NEWS, The Village Voice, Christgau, Robert, May 21, 1970,www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/jazz-70.php, Jazz Annual, September 20, 2013, For Sketches of Spain, Evans and Davis won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Composition of More Than Five Minutes Duration.WEB,www.grammy.com/nominees/search?page=1&artist=miles%20davis&field_nominee_work_value=&year=All&genre=All, Past Winners Search | GRAMMY.com, grammy.com, Best Jazz Composition Of More Than Five Minutes Duration, 2 June 2013, The album was ranked number 358 on Rolling Stone{{’}}s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.MAGAZINE,www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/miles-davis-sketches-of-spain-49740//, 2012, 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone’s definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, Rolling Stone, September 9, 2019,

Track listing

{{tracklist|headline= Side one|title1= Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)|writer1= JoaquÃn Rodrigo|length1= 16:19

El amor brujo>Will o’ the Wisp|writer2= Manuel de Falla|length2= 3:47}}{{tracklist|headline= Side two|title1= The Pan Piper (Alborada de Vigo)|writer1= Traditional, Gil Evans |length1= 3:52|title2= Saeta|writer2= Traditional, Gil Evans|length2= 5:06|title3= Solea|writer3= Gil Evans|length3= 12:15

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Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1â€“5 on CD reissues.

{{tracklist|headline= 1997 reissue bonus tracks|title6= Song of Our Country|writer6= Heitor Villa-Lobos; arranged by Gil Evans|length6= 3:23|title7= Concierto de Aranjuez |note7= alternative take; part 1|writer7= JoaquÃn Rodrigo|length7= 12:04|title8= Concierto de Aranjuez |note8= alternative take; part 2 ending|writer8= JoaquÃn Rodrigo|length8= 3:33

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Song title meanings

Concierto de Aranjuez was written about the gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez.
El amor brujo is often translated as “The Bewitched Love.” It is a ballet by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla.
“The Pan Piper” refers to the instrument (pan flute) played by a pig’s castrator and knife grinder and the melody he used to play when arriving to villages in Galicia. “Alborada” is a traditional folk style from Galicia.
“Saeta” is a type of religious song mostly sung during the (Holy Week) processions in Spain.
“Solea” is a form of flamenco music.

Personnel

Miles Davis – arranger, trumpet, flugelhorn
Gil Evans – arranger, conductor
Johnny Coles – trumpet
Bernie Glow – trumpet
Taft Jordan – trumpet
Louis Mucci – trumpet
Ernie Royal – trumpet
John Barrows – French horn
James Buffington – French horn
Earl Chapin – French horn
Tony Miranda – French horn
Joe Singer – French horn
Dick Hixon – trombone
Frank Rehak – trombone
Bill Barber – tuba
Jimmy McAllister – tuba
Danny Bank – bass clarinet
Albert Block – flute
Eddie Caine – flute
Harold Feldman – clarinet, flute, oboe
Romeo Penque – oboe
Jack Knitzer – bassoon
Paul Chambers – bass
Jimmy Cobb – drums
Elvin Jones – percussion
Elden “Buster” Bailey – percussion (tracks 2â€“5)
Janet Putnam – harp

Certifications and sales

{{certification Table Top}}{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Miles Davis|title=Sketches of Spain|award=Silver|certyear=2013|relyear=1997|id=9291-2673-2|note=sales since 1997|access-date=June 15, 2020}}{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United States|artist=Miles Davis|title=Sketches of Spain|award=Platinum|salesamount=861,000|relyear=1959|certyear=2020|salesref=WEB,www.vulture.com/2015/09/miles-davis-lives-9-parts.html, Understanding Miles Davis, in 9 Parts, Vulture, September 25, 2015, Greg, Cwik, June 15, 2020, }}{{Certification Table Bottom| nosales=true}}

References

External links

Sketches of Spain Legacy Edition at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)

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