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

1998 · Columbia (reissued by Classic Records) CS 8271 · Stereo · US · LP, test pressing · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Columbia (reissued by Classic Records)
Catalogue number	CS 8271
Year	1998
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP, test pressing
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Third Stream/Orchestral Jazz
Producer	Teo Macero
Composer	Joaquín Rodrigo (Concierto de Aranjuez); Gil Evans and Miles Davis (remaining pieces, incorporating traditional Spanish/flamenco themes)
Conductor	Gil Evans
Performer / Orchestra	Gil Evans Orchestra
Musicians	Miles Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Gil Evans (arranger, conductor), Elvin Jones (drums, percussion), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Paul Chambers (bass), Janet Putnam (harp), Bernie Glow, Ernie Royal, Louis Mucci, Ray Triscari (trumpets), Jimmy Buffington, Earl Chapin, Tony Miranda, Bob Swisshelm (French horns), Frank Rehak, Dick Hixon (trombones), Bill Barber (tuba), Romeo Penque, Eddie Caine, Al Block, Danny Bank (woodwinds/reeds)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  CS 8271-A BG
Side B:  CS 8271-B BG

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1960 - US Columbia 6-eye deep-groove stereo, first pressing
1960 - US Columbia 6-eye mono (CL 1480) first pressing
mid-1960s - US Columbia 2-eye red/black stereo label
late 1960s-70s - US Columbia orange-label reissue
1998 - Classic Records CS 8271-200g, 200-gram Quiex SV-P, Bernie Grundman remaster, retail generic jacket
1998 - Classic Records CS 8271-200g white-label TEST PRESSING, generic jacket, 'CRWH' sticker  <- this copy
2000s - Classic Records 45 RPM 4-LP box set (180g)
2013 - Mobile Fidelity MFSL 180g half-speed remaster

This Pressing

1998 Classic Records CS 8271-200g reissue — white-label, unnumbered TEST PRESSING in generic Classic Records jacket, not a retail copy.

The Album

Sketches of Spain (1960) was the third and most ambitious orchestral collaboration between Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans, following Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess. Davis brought Evans a classical guitar recording of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, and Evans built an entire suite around it plus original and traditional Spanish- and flamenco-inflected material, scoring for a large studio orchestra of brass, woodwinds, harp and percussion rather than a conventional jazz combo. Recorded across sessions in late 1959 and early 1960 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio, the sessions were famously arduous, requiring extensive splicing and studio craft from Evans and producer Teo Macero to assemble the finished performances. The album arrived at a pivotal moment in Davis's career, between the modal breakthrough of Kind of Blue and his later 1960s quintet work, showcasing his ability to function as a lyrical soloist within dense, painterly orchestral textures rather than a small-group improviser. It is widely regarded as a landmark of Third Stream and orchestral jazz, prized for Evans's lush, dissonant voicings and Davis's aching, vocal-like trumpet and flugelhorn tone on pieces like Saeta and Solea. Critically acclaimed on release and ever since, it remains one of the most celebrated fusions of jazz improvisation with classical and Spanish folk idioms, cited by generations of critics and musicians as a high-water mark for both Davis and Evans.

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 plain white Classic Records 'TEST PRESSING' labels with no printed catalog or track text, housed in a generic Classic Records white jacket bearing a typed sticker reading 'Classic Records CS 8271-200g A/B CRWH.' Classic Records began its 200-gram Quiex SV-P audiophile reissue program licensing Columbia/Sony masters in the late 1990s, with Bernie Grundman cutting new lacquers for titles including this one, Kind of Blue, and other Columbia jazz staples; the BG etch (CS 8271-A BG / CS 8271-B BG) confirms this pedigree. As a pre-release test pressing it sits ahead of and outside the normal retail run in the pressing hierarchy, representing the mastering/plant quality-check stage rather than the standard-issue copy with printed Classic Records labels. The blank white labels and hand-typed jacket sticker match documented Classic Records test-pressing practice, which typically produced small, unnumbered runs distributed internally or to select accounts.

Fidelity

Bernie Grundman remastered this edition from analog Columbia tapes for Classic Records' 200-gram Quiex SV-P Super Vinyl Profile, and collector consensus on forums.stevehoffman.tv generally rates this cut as a strong, dynamic all-analog alternative to vintage Columbia pressings, praised for bass weight and clarity though occasionally noted as slightly forward in the upper midrange, a trait sometimes associated with Grundman's Classic Records work. As a test pressing, this copy represents the mastering chain ahead of any later-stamper drift, theoretically offering the most faithful transfer of Grundman's cut. In the album's overall fidelity hierarchy it ranks below a pristine original 1960 Columbia 6-eye stereo pressing (the tape-fresh benchmark most Steve Hoffman forum members prefer) but above later Columbia reissues, and is generally considered comparable to or slightly favored over the 2013 Mobile Fidelity 180g half-speed remaster by fans of heavier, all-analog cuts, though MFSL is often cited as quieter and more refined by others.

Notes

This is a test pressing of the 1998 Classic Records 200-gram reissue of Sketches of Spain, not an original Columbia pressing. The plain white 'TEST PRESSING' labels (no track/catalog text) and the generic Classic Records jacket with a typed 'CS 8271-200g A/B CRWH' sticker are consistent with pre-production quality-control copies made ahead of the commercial run. Runout etchings CS 8271-A BG / CS 8271-B BG confirm Bernie Grundman as mastering engineer, matching the documented 1998 200g Quiex SV-P edition. Such test pressings were produced in very small quantities, distinct from and pre-dating the standard-issue copies with printed Classic Records labels.

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