Miles Davis’ Final Pairing With Arranger Gil Evans: Flamenco-Themed Sketches of Spain Attains Synergy Between Orchestrations and Melancholic Jazz

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes for Sublime Sound: Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition Hybrid SACD Corrects the Dryness on Previous Editions

Miles Davis and Gil Evans bridged styles and collaborated on high-concept projects a total of three times during their celebrated career. For their final act, they created Sketches of Spain, a peak moment in each luminary’s career and a transformative album that weds Spanish themes, lush orchestrations, romantic timbres, and Davis’ increasingly lyrical methods in a tender ceremony that continues to resonate more than five decades after its original release.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition hybrid SACD significantly expands the soundstage that frames the orchestra and digs deep to eradicate a dryness that many critics have found as an anathema to its overall enjoyment. Here is the full-figured perspective long deserved by the woodwinds, strings, and percussion, all of which come alive with exceptional definition and detail. You'll also note the revealing separation within the space occupied by Davis, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb, percussionist Elvin Jones, and the 18-piece orchestra. Ditto the absorbing detail and textures of the blues undercurrents and Spanish flamenco strains.

Multi-note motifs, brief improvisational solos, fanfare sweeps, and contrapuntal exchanges inform the flamenco-spiced pieces, but so do unconventionally voiced instruments that come into full relief on this reissue. Davis’ Harmon-muted trumpet is abetted by an assortment of bassoons and French horns that create pleasing contrasts and sounds (pp, mf, ppp) that get to the heart of Sketches of Spain: splashes of color. Seldom, if ever, did Davis ever so expressively and liberally paint with color. And in Evans, he has a likewise-minded partner to help draw out variegated shades, adamantine layers, and striated distinctions.

Whether it’s the somber mood piece of the standout “Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio),” renowned for Davis’ flugelhorn performance, or the folktale-based “Solea,” Sketches of Spain transfixes with playing, ideas, and innovations that remain exclusive to this incomparable record.