Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain (1981 Japanese CBS/Sony Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: VG+
Sleeve: VG+
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Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese CBS/Sony Reissue (18AP 2057, Miles 25 Series)

Evans played Davis a recording of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and Davis wanted to record it. The arrangement that Evans produced from the second movement (Adagio) took the 16 minutes of side A to execute, and the session on November 20, 1959 was by Davis's account one of the most physically demanding recording dates of his career. The difficulty is audible in the best way. Davis's trumpet sounds exposed against the orchestral backdrop, carrying a long, mournful melody through a web of French horns, harp, flute and bass clarinet that Evans voices in clusters so dense they shimmer rather than resolve. There's almost no improvisation in the conventional sense. Davis plays the line Evans wrote for him, and what makes it work is the tone: dry, precise, unadorned, sitting on top of the orchestra rather than blending into it. "Will O' The Wisp," from de Falla's ballet El Amor Brujo, is the shortest track and the most contained, Davis's flugelhorn carrying a fragmented melody over muted brass.

Side B is where Evans's original compositions take over. "The Pan Piper" was inspired by a field recording of Peruvian music, its melody drawn from a single instrument against a rhythmic backdrop that Elvin Jones anchors with hand percussion rather than the drum kit he played in Coltrane's quartet. "Saeta" reimagines the vocal form sung during Semana Santa processions in Seville: Davis's trumpet functions as the human voice, crying out above a slow march. "Solea," the 12-minute closing piece, is based on the soleá, one of the foundational forms of flamenco, and is the track where Davis sounds most like himself, stretching further from the written material than anywhere else on the album.

This is the 1981 Japanese stereo reissue on CBS/Sony 18AP 2057.