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 |
|---|
| 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, Irving Townsend |
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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), Al Block (flute), Bernie Glow (trumpet), Dick Hixon (trombone), Earl Chapin (French horn), Eddie Caine (flute, clarinet), Danny Bank (bass clarinet), Elvin Jones (drums, percussion), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Paul Chambers (bass), Jose Mangual (percussion), Frank Rehak (trombone), John Coles (trumpet), Ernie Royal (trumpet), Taft Jordan (trumpet) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: XLP 49956-1A 1 1 1
Side B: XLP 49957-1A 1 1 1
Condition
- Cover
- VG+ SPLIT TOP QUARTER OF CORNER/VG+
- Vinyl
- NM DEEP GROOVE/NM DEEP GROOVE
Variant chronology
1960 - US 6-eye maroon/silver deep-groove mono, no CBS on label, matrix XLP 49956/49957-1A <- this copy
1963-65 - US 2-eye mono reissue, deep groove retained on early copies
1965-70 - US "360 Sound" mono/black label reissue
1969 - Japan CBS/Sony pressing
c. 1970s - Columbia Stereo reissue (CS 8271, various label styles)
2013 - Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-375 audiophile reissue (mono/stereo options)
2025 - Craft/MoFi UHQR or standard audiophile reissue
This Pressing
1st press (mono, 1960) - Columbia 6-eye deep-groove label, no CBS text, matrix XLP 49956/49957-1A.
The Album
Sketches of Spain grew out of Miles Davis's fascination with Spanish and Andalusian folk and classical music, sparked in part by hearing Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and by flamenco encountered around the time of his marriage to Frances Taylor. Recorded across sessions in November 1959 and March 1960, it was the third and most ambitious of Davis's large-scale orchestral collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, following Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess. Rather than a conventional jazz combo date, the album places Davis's trumpet and flugelhorn as a singular, vocal-like voice floating over Evans's dense, classically inflected orchestrations for woodwinds, brass, and percussion, with almost no traditional swing rhythm section driving the music. The adagio movement from the Concierto became one of the most recognized themes in the jazz repertoire. The record arrived at a pivotal moment in Davis's career, sandwiched between the modal breakthroughs of Kind of Blue and his subsequent quintet work, and it cemented his reputation as an artist unafraid to reshape jazz's boundaries. Critically it was hailed on release as a bold, atmospheric triumph and has remained one of the most acclaimed and influential orchestral jazz albums ever made, frequently cited alongside Kind of Blue and Miles Ahead as a high-water mark of the Davis-Evans partnership.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Concierto De Aranjuez - J. Rodrigo
2. Will O' The Wisp (from "El Amor Brujo") - M. De Falla
Side 2
1. The Pan Piper - G. Evans
2. Saeta - G. Evans
3. Solea - G. Evans
The Label
This copy carries Columbia's earliest "6-eye" red label design: "COLUMBIA" arched across the top in white, six small eye-in-triangle logos ringing the label (three per side), a circled "LP" logo at bottom center, no "CBS" branding anywhere, and the abbreviated credit "Orch. arranged and conducted by Gil Evans." This design, paired with a deep-groove ring pressed near the label edge, was Columbia's standard label from the mid-1950s until it was phased out for the two-eye and later "Guaranteed High Fidelity" black-label styles around 1961-62. Discogs documents numerous stamper variants for CL 1480 (1A through the 1AK+ range, plus Hollywood "H" and Terre Haute "T" plant suffixes); the -1A suffix on both sides here places this pressing among the earliest stamper generations run at the outset of production, i.e., very near the front of the original mono pressing run rather than a later reground stamper. No plant letter (H/T) appears in the transcribed runout, so the specific pressing plant cannot be confirmed from the data provided.
Fidelity
This is an original 1960 Columbia mono cut, mastered from the analog session tapes at the dawn of Columbia's in-house mastering era; 6-eye deep-groove pressings are widely regarded by collectors on forums.stevehoffman.tv as the most natural, warm, and dynamically alive versions of this recording, especially in mono, which best represents Gil Evans's dense orchestration without the phasing artifacts of the era's stereo mixdowns. Later 2-eye and black-label Columbia reissues (mid-1960s onward) are generally considered a step down in vinyl quality and mastering freshness. Modern audiophile reissues - Mobile Fidelity's 2013 MFSL 1-375 (mono/stereo) and the more recent MoFi UHQR/standard 2025 pressing - are praised for quietness and clarity but some forum listeners find them slightly more polite or bass-heavy than the vintage 6-eye cut; among vintage and modern options, a clean original 6-eye mono like this one remains the benchmark reference pressing for many collectors, with the best modern reissues competing closely but not universally preferred.
Notes
1960 Columbia CL 1480 mono - original first pressing. Evidence: 6-eye maroon/silver Columbia label with deep groove and no CBS branding (Columbia's earliest LP label design, used through the early 1960s), plus -1A matrix suffix on both sides indicating an early stamper generation, among the earliest documented on Discogs for this catalog number. Released July 1960, shortly after recording wrapped in March 1960. The specific pressing plant (Hollywood "H" vs Terre Haute "T") is not identifiable from the transcription alone, as no plant letter was noted alongside the -1A suffix.
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