Sketches of Spain is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York. An extended version of the second movement of Joaquin Rodrigos 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 an exemplary recording of Third Stream, a musical fusion of jazz, European classical, and world musics. 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] hadnt 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. Its such a strong song. I was so thrilled with that. 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 concertos 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. 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. Davis thought the concertos 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. Reception 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, Its music, and I like it. 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 Stones list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Evans and Davis won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for Sketches of Spain. Track listing Side one Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio) (Joaquín Rodrigo) – 16:19 Will o the Wisp (Manuel de Falla) – 3:47 Side two The Pan Piper (a.k.a. Alborada de Vigo) (traditional) – 3:52 Saeta (Gil Evans) – 5:06 Solea (Evans) – 12:15 1997 reissue bonus tracks Song of Our Country (Heitor Villa-Lobos uncredited, arranged by Evans) – 3:23 Concierto de Aranjuez (alternative take; part 1) (Rodrigo) – 12:04 Concierto de Aranjuez (alternative take; part 2 ending) (Rodrigo) – 3:33 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.) Danny Bank – bass clarinet Bill Barber – tuba John Barrows – French horn Albert Block – flute James Buffington – French horn Eddie Caine – flute, flugelhorn Paul Chambers – bass Earl Chapin – French horn Jimmy Cobb – drums Johnny Coles – trumpet Miles Davis – trumpet, flugelhorn Gil Evans – arranger, conductor Harold Feldman – clarinet, flute, oboe Bernie Glow – trumpet Dick Hixon – trombone Elvin Jones – percussion Taft Jordan – trumpet Jack Knitzer – bassoon Jose Mangual – percussion Jimmy McAllister – tuba Tony Miranda – French horn Louis Mucci – trumpet Romeo Penque – oboe Janet Putnam – harp Frank Rehak – trombone Ernie Royal – trumpet Joe Singer – French horn In popular culture[edit] Bucketheads 2002 album, Electric Tears, contains a song entitled Sketches of Spain (For Miles). Two Pedro Almodóvar films use songs from the album: Tacones lejanos (High Heels), where Solea is heard over the opening credits; and La flor de mi secreto (The Flower of My Secret), where Saeta is heard in a ballet scene. In Haruki Murakamis novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the main character owns a signed copy of Sketches of Spain. In the movie The Salton Sea, Val Kilmers character plays an excerpt from the song Saeta on his trumpet. It is also a prevailing song throughout the movie. Hip hop producer DJ Premier sampled Will O the Wisp for the tracks Invasion and Wrath of the Math for the Jeru The Damaja 1996 album Wrath of the Math. In 2010, a cover of the album was recorded featuring Lew Soloff, solo trumpet, with Steve Richman conducting the Harmonie Ensemble/New York. In concert, the Grateful Dead occasionally played a jam inspired by Solea that was dubbed by fans as Spanish Jam. Examples of this jam can be heard on various concert recordings, including Dicks Picks Volume 6. The screamo band Saetia is named after a track on Sketches of Spain, Saeta. Artist and filmmaker Bruce Conner used Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio) as the soundtrack to his 1967 film The White Rose, a documentary about the removal of Jay DeFeos magnum opus painting The Rose from her apartment.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 14:03:11 +0000
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