Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain [COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

Sketches of Spain is one of the great collaborations in jazz, Miles Davis' trumpet set against Gil Evans' orchestral colours, and a landmark of third-stream music.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

It started with a night out: Miles Davis' wife Frances took him to see a flamenco performance, and he walked out obsessed. Not long after, he heard Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, and he and arranger Gil Evans set about turning Spanish music into something entirely their own.

Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio between late 1959 and early 1960, it's breathtaking. The 16-minute "Concierto de Aranjuez" unfolds like a film score, "Will o' the Wisp" is drawn from Manuel de Falla's ballet El amor brujo, and "Saeta" and "Solea" have Miles' trumpet crying and soaring like a flamenco singer over Evans' rich, shimmering orchestra.

Pour a glass of something red and let it carry you to Andalusia.

Also at Kops: more Miles Davis on vinyl · browse Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia (cat# 88875111931), a reissue of the 1960 album.