Sketches of Spain

Sketches of Spain
Studio album by Miles Davis
Released July 18, 1960
Recorded November 20, 1959; March 10, 1960
Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York
Genre Third stream[1]
Length 41:19
Label Columbia
Producer Teo Macero, Irving Townsend
Miles Davis chronology

Kind of Blue
(1959)		 Sketches of Spain
(1960)		 Someday My Prince Will Come
(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 Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is included, as well as a song called "Will o' the Wisp", from the ballet El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla. Sketches of Spain is regarded as an exemplary recording of Third Stream, a musical fusion of jazz, European classical, and styles of world music.[1]

Background

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.[2]

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 Joaquín 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.[2] The middle of the piece contains a "chorus" by Evans unrelated to the concerto but "echoed" in the other pieces on the album.[2] The original melody then reappears in a darker mode.

Davis plays flugelhorn and later trumpet, attempting to connect the various settings musically.[3] 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."[3] 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.[3]

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.[3]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [4]
Down Beat [5]
Penguin Guide to Jazz [6]
Pitchfork (10.0/10)[7]
Pitchfork (8.0/10)[8]
Q [9]
Rolling Stone Album Guide [10]

Sketches of Spain is widely considered by fans and critics to be one of the most accessible albums of Davis' career. It is less improvisational than much of his other work. Replying to suggestions that Sketches of Spain was something other than jazz, Davis told Rolling Stone magazine, "It's music, and I like it".[11]

The Rolling Stone Album Guide calls it "a work of unparalleled grace and lyricism."[10] In 2003, the album was ranked number 358 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[11]

Evans and Davis won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for Sketches of Spain.[12]

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Concierto de Aranjuez" (Adagio) (Joaquín Rodrigo) – 16:19
  2. "Will o' the Wisp" (Manuel de Falla) – 3:47
Side two
  1. "The Pan Piper" (a.k.a. Alborada de Vigo) (traditional) – 3:52
  2. "Saeta" (Gil Evans) – 5:06
  3. "Solea" (Evans) – 12:15
1997 reissue bonus tracks
  1. "Song of Our Country" (Heitor Villa-Lobos, arranged by Evans) – 3:23
  2. "Concierto de Aranjuez" (alternative take; part 1) (Rodrigo) – 12:04
  3. "Concierto de Aranjuez" (alternative take; part 2 ending) (Rodrigo) – 3:33

Song title meanings

  1. "Concierto de Aranjuez" was written about the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez.
  2. "El Amor Brujo" is often translated as "The Bewitched Love" or "Love, the Sorcerer".
  3. "Alborada de Vigo" means "daybreak in the city of Vigo".
  4. "Saeta" is a type of religious song that is sung during the religious processions of Semana Santa in Seville, Spain.
  5. "Solea" is a form of Flamenco music.

Personnel

In alphabetical order (Note: this list actually encompasses the total musicians used on several sessions in late 1959 and early 1960. The actual number of players on the pieces was 19.)

In popular culture

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kanzler, George. "Miles Revisited: Sketches of Spain (50th Anniversary Edition) & Miles Ahead Live". All About Jazz. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Crease, Stephanie Stein (2003). Gil Evans: Out of the Cool: His Life and Music. Chicago Review Press; p. 207. ISBN 9781556524936
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chambers, Jack (1998). Milestones: The Music And Times Of Miles Davis. Da Capo Press; pp. 10-11.
  4. ↑ Jurek, Thom. Sketches of Spain at AllMusic. Retrieved 15 September 2005.
  5. ↑ "Tower Records listing". Tower.com. 1997-09-23. Retrieved 2012-01-07.
  6. ↑ The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (6th ed.). Penguin Books. 2002. ISBN 978-0-14-051521-3. Cited at "Sketches of Spain rankings and ratings". AcclaimedMusic.net. Retrieved 14 June 2008.
  7. ↑ Schreiber, Ryan (October 1997). "Miles Davis Sketches of Spain > Album Review". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 3 November 2005. Retrieved 30 January 2006.
  8. ↑ Richardson, Mark (June 5, 2009). "Miles Davis Sketches of Spain Legacy Edition > Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  9. ↑ "''Sketches of Spain'' details at". Cduniverse.com. Retrieved 2012-01-07.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Considine, J.D. (2004). "Miles Davis". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. London: Fireside. pp. 214–217. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Levy, Joe; Steven Van Zandt (2006) [2005]. "356 | Sketches of Spain - Miles Davis". Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (3rd ed.). London: Turnaround. ISBN 1-932958-61-4. OCLC 70672814. Retrieved 25 May 2006.
  12. ↑ "Past Winners Search | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com. Retrieved 2 June 2013. Best Jazz Composition Of More Than Five Minutes Duration
  13. ↑ "Spanish Jam | Grateful Dead". Dead.net. Retrieved 2012-01-07.

External links