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

Pressing details

Label	Classic Records (reissuing Columbia)
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 stereo first pressing
1961-1978 - Columbia stereo/mono reissues on later label designs (various catalogue suffixes) - band not established
1998 - Classic Records 200g stereo reissue, standard retail issue with printed labels
1998 - Classic Records 200g stereo, blank white TEST PRESSING labels, generic jacket (this copy) - band not established <- this copy

This Pressing

1998 200-gram reissue, blank white TEST PRESSING labels in a generic jacket - a pre-release quality-control copy, not a retail pressing.

The Album

Sketches of Spain 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 the producer 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

The side labels on this copy are plain white stock printed only with the Classic Records logo, the legend 'CLASSIC RECORDS (remember the sound...)' and 'TEST PRESSING' arced top and bottom, with two blank ruled lines where a title/side would normally be typed or stamped - no catalogue number, artist or track text appears on either label, and no groove ring is visible in the label field of either photo, so the label itself is flat with no deep groove present. This blank-label format is the pre-production check-copy stock used ahead of this reissue series' printed-label 200-gram retail edition, which carries the reused Columbia number CS 8271 on the jacket. The copy is placed by its own jacket sticker and dead-wax etching rather than by any period label design chronology; a deep groove or vintage-style rim text is not present on this test-pressing label, and even where such a feature does appear on the retail pressing of this series, it would be a reproduced design element faithful to the original label rather than a dating tell for the reissue itself.

Fidelity

This edition was remastered from analog Columbia tapes for a 200-gram audiophile pressing series, and collectors on the forums generally rate the 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. As a test pressing struck ahead of the retail run, this copy represents the mastering chain before any later-stamper drift, theoretically offering as faithful a transfer of that cut as any copy of the edition. In the album's overall fidelity hierarchy it ranks below a pristine original 1960 6-eye stereo pressing, the tape-fresh benchmark most collectors prefer, and is generally considered comparable to or slightly favored over a later half-speed-mastered 180-gram reissue by fans of a heavier, all-analog sound, though that edition is often regarded as quieter and more refined by others.

Notes

This is a test pressing of the 1998 200-gram reissue of Sketches of Spain, not an original Columbia pressing and not a printed-label retail copy of the reissue itself. The plain white labels carry only 'CLASSIC RECORDS' and 'TEST PRESSING' text with no catalogue or track information, and the jacket is a generic white sleeve bearing a typed sticker reading 'Classic Records CS 8271-200g A/B CRWH.' The etched runouts read 'CS 8271-A BG' and 'CS 8271-B BG,' identifying the same mastering engineer's lacquer cut used for the retail 200-gram edition. Such blank-label copies were made in very small numbers ahead of the standard commercial run and sit outside the normal retail pressing hierarchy.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/miles-davis-sketches-of-spain-test-press/