Sketches of Spain

Sketches of Spain was the third and final large-scale orchestral collaboration between Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans, following Miles Ahead (1957) and Porgy and Bess (1959). Davis became fixated on Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez after hearing it, and Evans reimagined its adagio movement as the album's centerpiece, recording across sessions in November 1959 and March 1960 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio. Evans built an unconventional ensemble around Davis's trumpet and flugelhorn - French horns, tuba, harp, bassoon, and flamenco-inflected percussion - blending Spanish classical and folk sources with his own compositions, including "Saeta," drawn from Holy Week processional music, and the closing "Solea." The sessions were exacting and demanding, with Evans meticulously shaping every orchestral texture, and the resulting album is often held up as the fullest realization of the Third Stream fusion of jazz improvisation and classical form. Davis himself counted it among his favorite recordings, and it marks a creative peak in both his and Evans's careers. The album won a Grammy Award, became one of the best-selling jazz records of its era, was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and remains a touchstone of orchestral jazz.