Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
Miles Davis
Sketches of Spain
1960 · Columbia CL 1480 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Columbia |
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| Catalogue number | CL 1480 |
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| Year | 1960 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz - Third Stream/Orchestral Jazz |
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| Producer | Teo Macero, Cal Lampley |
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| Conductor | Gil Evans |
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| Performer / Orchestra | Gil Evans Orchestra |
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| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Gil Evans (arranger, conductor), Elvin Jones (drums, percussion), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Paul Chambers (bass), Jose Mangual (percussion), Johnny Coles, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci, Ernie Royal, Taft Jordan (trumpets, varying by session), Bill Barber (tuba), Danny Bank (flute, clarinet, bass clarinet), Romeo Penque, Eddie Caine, Al Block, Harold Feldman (woodwinds), Jack Knitzer (bassoon), Earl Chapin, Tony Miranda (French horn); personnel varies somewhat between the November 1959 and March 1960 sessions |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: XLP49956-1C
Side B: XLP49957-1K
Condition
- Cover
- VG+
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1960 - US Columbia "6-eye" mono, deep groove, full (unabbreviated) orchestra credit, Terre Haute plant <- this copy
1961-62 - US Columbia "6-eye" mono, flat edge (deep groove phased out), abbreviated orchestra credit variants
1963-65 - US Columbia "Guaranteed High Fidelity" 2-eye mono reissue, CBS-era labels
1965+ - US Columbia "360 Sound" mono/stereo reissue (Pitman)
1970s-80s - US Columbia orange-label reissue
This Pressing
1st press (mono, 1960) - Columbia six-eye deep-groove label, full orchestra credit, regular-size side numerals (the earliest six-eye sub-variant, the "Terre Haute Pressing").
The Album
Sketches of Spain grew out of the extraordinary partnership Miles Davis had already forged with arranger Gil Evans on Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess, pushing it furthest into orchestral, Spanish-tinged territory. The centerpiece, an adaptation of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, originated when Davis heard the concerto's adagio and asked Evans to rework it as a feature for his trumpet against a large studio orchestra rather than a working jazz combo. Recorded in New York across sessions in November 1959 and March 1960, the album folds flamenco-inflected themes, bullfight and Holy Week processional imagery, and material drawn from Manuel de Falla into Evans's dense, coloristic orchestration, with Davis's trumpet and flugelhorn functioning almost as a classical soloist floating over shifting textures rather than trading bebop lines. It arrived at a pivotal moment in Davis's career, sandwiched between the hard-bop and modal breakthroughs of Milestones and Kind of Blue and his later electric period, confirming Evans and Davis as jazz's foremost orchestral colorists outside the big-band tradition. The record was a critical and commercial success, widely praised for its atmosphere and for Davis's uniquely vocal, vibrato-laden trumpet tone, and it won a Grammy for Best Jazz Composition. It remains one of the most acclaimed "third stream" recordings in jazz history and a touchstone for orchestral jazz, cited by critics as a high point of both Davis's and Evans's catalogs and a work that expanded jazz's vocabulary.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Concierto de Aranjuez
2. Will O' The Wisp
Side 2
1. The Pan Piper
2. Saeta
3. Solea
The Label
This copy carries Columbia's original "six-eye" mono label: red field, arched COLUMBIA logo, six "eye" logos in the trim ring, "NONBREAKABLE" beneath the catalog number, plus a deep-groove ring - the configuration used in Columbia's 1958-1961 six-eye deep-groove era. The orchestra credit is spelled out in full ("Orchestra arranged and conducted by Gil Evans") and the side indicators use regular, equal-sized capitalization ("SIDE 1" with the numeral not enlarged), the textual markers of the earliest "six-eye" sub-variant of CL 1480, the "Terre Haute Pressing." This places the disc in the earliest issue window for CL 1480, shortly after the album's July 1960 release and ahead of later six-eye pressings with abbreviated credit/enlarged numerals, and well ahead of the mid-1960s two-eye/CBS and later reissue labels.
Fidelity
Original Columbia in-house engineering (uncredited on the jacket) captured Evans's dense orchestration with considerable depth for 1960; the six-eye mono cut is generally regarded by collectors on the forums as the most natural-sounding version, since the era's stereo mixdown involved more compromises and the mono fold gives a more cohesive orchestral blend. This deep-groove six-eye pressing sits at the top of the fidelity hierarchy for CL 1480, ahead of later 1960s two-eye/360 Sound reissues and electronically rechanneled stereo pressings; later audiophile reissues (Mobile Fidelity, Speakers Corner/Music on Vinyl) are respected for quiet surfaces but are generally regarded by mono purists as secondary to a clean original six-eye mono copy for tonal accuracy.
Notes
1960 Columbia CL 1480 mono - original first pressing. Six-eye label with deep groove, full unabbreviated "Orchestra arranged and conducted by Gil Evans" credit, and regular/equal-sized side-number typography place this copy as the earliest six-eye sub-variant for this catalog number, known as the "Terre Haute Pressing." The pressing plant is not identified on the labels, but the deep groove and label design firmly place this copy in the 1960 first-issue window, well ahead of later six-eye variants and the mid-1960s two-eye/CBS reissue labels.
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