Sketches of Spain

Infobox Album
Name = Sketches of Spain
Type = Studio album
Longtype =
Artist = Miles Davis


Released = 1960
Recorded = November 20 1959; March 10-11, 1960
Genre = Jazz
Length = 60:45 (1997 reissue)
Label = Columbia
Producer = Teo Macero & Irving Townsend
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:af5gtq4zzu4o link]
*"Down Beat" Rating|5|5 [http://www.tower.com/sketches-spain-miles-davis-cd/wapi/106693154 Tower Records - Shop Online at Tower.com for the Planet's Largest Collection....]
*"Penguin Guide to Jazz" Rating|3.5|4 [http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/Current/A1877.htm "Sketches of Spain" rankings and ratings at AcclaimedMusic.net]
*Pitchfork (10.0/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/16888-sketches-of-spain link]
*"Q" Rating|5|5 [http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1088638/a/Sketches+Of+Spain.htm "Sketches of Spain" details at CDuniverse.com]
*"Rolling Stone" (favorable) [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6626130/356_sketches_of_spain link]
Last album = "Kind of Blue"
(1959)
This album = "Sketches of Spain"
(1960)
Next album = "Someday My Prince Will Come"
(1961)

"Sketches of Spain" is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960. 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. (An extended version of the second movement of Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" is also included, as well as a song called "Will o' the Wisp", from the ballet El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla.)

Reception

"Sketches of Spain" is considered to be one of the most accessible albums of Davis's career: the most recent edition of the "Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD" describes it as "elevated light music". Less improvisational than much other jazz, contemporaries suggested that "Sketches of Spain" was something other than jazz. Davis replied (according to "Rolling Stone" magazine), "It's music, and I like it". [ [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/milesdavis/articles/story/6626130/356_sketches_of_spain 356) Sketches of Spain: Miles Davis : Rolling Stone ] ]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 356 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track listing

#"Concierto de Aranjuez" (Adagio) (Joaquín Rodrigo) – 16:19
#"Will o' the Wisp" (Manuel de Falla) – 3:47
#"The Pan Piper" (Gil Evans) – 3:52
#"Saeta" (Evans) – 5:06
#"Solea" (Evans) – 12:15
#: Bonus tracks added after upon reissue in 2000:
#"Song of Our Country" (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"
* 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

Trivia

* In 2002 Buckethead released his ninth full length album called "Electric Tears" containing a song called "Sketches of Spain (For Miles)".
* A sample from "Concierto de Aranjuez" was used in the Chroma Key song "Before You Started".
* In the Clint Eastwood film "The Gauntlet" (1977) the Jerry Fielding soundtrack music for the climactic gauntlet sequence is an almost identical copy of the "Solea" track.
* "Saeta" was featured in two Almodóvar films: "Tacones lejanos (High Heels)", where it's heard over the opening credits; and "La flor de mi secreto (The flower of my secret)", in a ballet scene.
* The band Tears for Fears has a song called "Sketches of Pain" on the album "Raoul and the Kings of Spain".
* In Haruki Murakami's novel, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", the main character owns a signed copy of "Sketches of Spain".
* In the movie The Salton Sea, Val Kilmer's character plays an excerpt from the song Saeta on his trumpet. It is also a prevailing song throughout the movie.

References