Sketches Of Spain

Artist: Gil Evans & Miles Davis

Released: 1960

The crown jewel of the epic Evans / Davis triptych that began with 'Miles Ahead' and 'Porgy and Bess', Sketches of Spain is as emotionally compelling as any performance in the trumpeter's remarkable body of works. Combining as it does the emotional gravity of two cultures - the deep song of flamenco music and the rich lament of the blues - Sketches of Spain is a musical hybrid of enormous power and beauty. Gil Evans' immense canvas of orchestral colours inspires some of Davis' most deeply felt solo flights. He paints vast vistas of velvety, shimmering night sounds, and through it all runs the mountainous backbone of Spain's native rhythms and chants.