MILES DAVIS WORKIN' and SKETCHES OF SPAIN

*****ALBUMS: 5) WORKIN’ WITH THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET

“Part of a series of four compilations of recordings released years later and, arguably the best.”

Miles Davis’ ‘Workin’ was recorded in 1956 (There were two sessions on 11^th May (the majority of the album) and 26^th October (the piece entitled Half Nelson as part of a contractual obligation to Prestige Records before Davis departed for Columbia Records that produced Workin’ and three other albums, Relaxin’, Steamin’ and Cookin’. Workin’ was not released until 1960.

TRACKS: It Never Entered My Mind, Four, In your Own Sweet Way, The Theme Take 1, Trane’s Blues, Ahmad’s Blues, Half Nelson, The Theme Take 2.

MUSICIANS: Miles Davis, trumpet; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass and cello, and Philly Joe Jones, drums.

NOTES: Of the 42 minutes, only under 8 minutes of music, The Theme, divided into two brief takes and Half Nelson were written by Davis. The three longest pieces, all clocking in at over 7 minutes were written by Eddie Vinson * (Four), John Coltrane (Trane’s Blues, otherwise known as Vierd Blues) and Ahmad’s Blues, written by Ahmad Jamal. The opening piece, It Never Entered My Mind was written by Richard Rodgers and the remaining track, In your Own Sweet Way, by Dave Brubeck. There is so much to admire about this album, one on which Philly Joe Jones and Red Garland really shine on pieces like Four and Ahmad’s Blues where Garland’s delicate touch and exquisite reading of the piece and interludes with Jones’s drums and percussion is delightful. The rendition of It Never Entered My Mind is absolutely gorgeous and the ‘signature’ tune, The Theme, in just over 3 minutes over parts manages to pack a lot in with a neat little bass solo and unexpected drum roll near the end of the first part. Other unexpected twists are the sawed bass and Jones’ famous rim shots and another great piano passage on Trane’s Blues with John Coltrane’s sax nowhere near as dominant as you would expect it to be. Workin’ is a classic example of a band leader delegating and trusting his musicians to deliver and one for the rhythm section.

*****ALBUMS: 6) MILES DAVIS: SKETCHES OF SPAIN

“Davis continues to show the versatility of his approach and a willingness to adapt different musical styles to jazz, in this case flamenco music.”

SKETCHES OF SPAIN was recorded in three sessions: 15^th and 20^th November, 1959 and 10^th March, 1960 in Columbia’s 30^th Street Studio.

TRACKS: Concierto de Aranjuez, Will O’ The Wisp, Alborada de Vigo (The Pan Piper), Saeta, Solea

MUSICIANS: Miles Davis, trumpet, flugelhorn; Johnny Coles, Bernie Glow, Taft Jordan. Louis Mucci and Ernie Royal, trumpet; John Barrows, James Buffington, Earl Chapin, Joe Singer and Tony Miranda, French horn; Dick Hixon and Frank Rehak, trombone; Bill Barber and Jimmy McAllister, tuba; Jack Knitzer, bassoon; Albert Block, flute; Harold Feldman, clarinet, flute, oboe; Romeo Penque, oboe; Danny Bank, bass clarinet; Janet Putnam, harp; Paul Chambers, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums; Elvin Jones, and Jose Mangual, percussion.

MILES DAVIS’ SKETCHES OF SPAIN was inspired by a serendipitous event when Miles’s wife Francis persuaded him to accompany her to a performance by a flamenco dancer. Little could she have guessed the impact this would have on her husband’s enquiring mind and, so enchanted was Miles that he visited Colony Records Shop in New York and bought as many flamenco records as he could find. Gil Evans is on record as saying that they set out on making the next album with one piece, Concierto de Aranjuez, at the heart of it. Evans couldn’t find a score for the piece but managed to work it out and he and Miles started listening to other

*Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson (1917-1988), so called because he accidentally burned off his hair with a hair straightening product, was a jazz alto saxophonist and blues shouter, whose recordings included Back Street Blues (1962) with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet (Riverside Records), Cherry Red (1967) with Mike Bloomfield (ABC) and Kidney Stew is Fine (1969) with T Bone Walker and Jay McShann on the Delmark label. Four was originally credited to Miles Davis, apparently as a ‘gift’ from Vinson, later reclaimed by him and appeared on Davis’s 1956 LP Blue Haze which was a compilation of recordings from 1953/1954. Tune Up on the same album falls into the same category, now recognised as a Vinson composition.

Spanish music, especially Alan Lomax’s recordings in Andalusia and Galicia which had been released in 1955 by Columbia Masterworks. The adagio movement of Concierto de Aranjuez accounts for a good proportion of the album and the Evans-Miles interpretation ingenuously translates the melody of theguitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo into flügelhorn (Davis also used trumpet on the album). An original ‘chorus’ by Evans that crops up in other places on the album, acts as a bridge between the melody in the first part and a darker version of it in the concluding part. Rodrigo himself seemed unimpressed as were some of the jazz reviewers who lamented that it contained very little jazz and very little that could challenge a classical performer. Evans glibly pointed out that Rodrigo earned a considerable amount of money in royalties from the piece. Nevertheless, the ***** reviews started to flow in, from Downbeat magazine to the Rolling Stone Album Guide, although the Penguin Guide to Jazz demurred giving it the respectable but not exceptional equivalent of 7/10, with the suggestion that it was a refined form of ambient ‘elevator music’ rather than jazz. The other pieces on the album were Manuel de Falla’s Will O’ The Wisp, with its muted trumpet and French hornwhich took side one to the 20 minute mark; the traditional Alborada de Vigo (The Pan Piper) featuring French horn and flute,  and two Evans pieces, Saeta, the equivalent of a Spanish hymn with trumpet fanfares, and the epic Solea, a type of flamenco music, the orchestra playing back-up to extended Davis trumpet soloing as it reaches its crescendo, which made up the majority of side two. The secret of Sketches of Spain’s success is multi-fold: firstly, it’s a very likeable album with appeal to people with little interest in jazz; the treatment of Spanish music is respectful, Davis and Evans agreeing that Concierto de Aranjuez was such an astounding piece that it needed a softer treatment which led them to some criticism of being ambient, but relating to my first point it was the peaceful, reflective. ‘candle light’ ambience and precision of the execution that resulted in such a lush sound, no improvisation in the rhythm which was charted; thirdly, as if another reason were needed, Davis and Evans proved they could indeed realise their aspirations of creating an orchestral jazz masterpiece. My caveat is that the cover got it all wrong; Miles is seen in silhouette playing to a bull, Gil is nowhere to be seen, Miles’ name is big and bold; the orchestrated and conducted bit referring to Gil is much too small for his immense contribution to this classic album which was, in reality, a Miles Davis and Gil Evans album.