For those unaware, this is Miles Davis’ final collaboration with arranger Gil Evans and yields watershed innovations: Flamenco-themed Sketches of Spain spins graceful webs of Sound and Emotion.

Miles Davis and Gil Evans bridged styles and collaborated on high-concept projects three different times during their celebrated careers. For their final act, they created Sketches of Spain, a peak moment in each luminary’s legacy.

The transformative album weds Spanish themes, lush orchestrations, romantic timbres, and Davis’ lyrical methods in a tender ceremony that resonates more than six decades after its original release.

Part of Mobile Fidelity’s Miles Davis restoration series, this 1960 landmark has been afforded the ultimate white-gloves treatment for its 65th anniversary. Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, this UltraDisc One-Step 33rpm 180g LP set dramatically expands the soundstages and eradicates a dryness that many critics found inhibitive to the record’s enjoyment.

You can now hear the full-range responsiveness of the woodwinds, strings, and percussion, all of which come alive with superior definition and detail.

The beautiful presentation of this UD1S set befits the record’s historical importance. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features a special foil-stamped jacket and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the 1960 LP.

This reissue is made for discerning listeners who desire to fully immerse themselves with the album. And who wouldn’t want to go deep with Sketches of Spain?

Side One:
1, Concierto de Aranjuez
2. Will O’ the Wisp

Side Two:
3. The Pan Piper
4. Saeta
5. Solea

Gil Evans’ style of writing is very unique in my opinion. I’m actually surprised that no one else has recorded Sketches of Spain in its entirety. It’s sometimes played at colleges but never professionally. I’d love to hear a newer recording of it, without all the cuts and mistakes, because even though it’s brilliant, it is not wholly perfect.

As different for Miles as Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew, Sketches of Spain brings Davis into the realm of Spanish classical music. The album’s piece de resistance is its opening track, Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, originally written for Spanish guitar and orchestra (original scoring can be heard on The Romero’s 1967 album for Mercury’s Living Presence Series).

It is a beautifully melodic piece in B minor which Davis plays on muted flugelhorn, with an orchestra arrangement by Gil Evans. The rest of the album is also outstanding, but for those whose experience with Miles Davis’ other albums may find this one somewhere out in left field. This is a jazz musician playing something totally outside his usual genre and he does it superbly.

Ranked #358 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, deemed a work of unparalleled grace and lyricism by noted scribe J.D. Considine, bestowed a five-star review from DownBeat, and noted by Q to have taken jazz in a new direction, the Grammy Award-winning effort has never been better.

1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 64 to analog console to lathe.

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