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Saturday 2 July 2011

Random Review #78 Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain

C10S8CD6 Picked by @choosemymusic follow for great new music and a chance to picks @dompaczko music.

At the last rough count I had about 2200 CD’s I have a very varied taste in music, but if I said I had 15 Jazz CD’s you’ll understand it’s not really a genre that I have sent a lot of time listening to. Of those 16 CD’s, 6 are Miles Davis and you’ll understand I haven’t really embraced Jazz at all. I have never been a fan, a little pretentious for me I just haven’t found an entry into Jazz music that has made me want more.

So why Miles Davis then? Well most of the main stream music magazines have featured Davis at some point, I think it’s his Rock and Roll attitude his appearance and he’s one of those artists that have crossed over into mainstream and influenced musicians outside of his genre because he was pushing the boundaries of his music (most of the time).

This album was seen by Jazz critics as nothing more than elevator music such was the feeling that Davis was being safe but to me it’s a great summer album and an even better holiday album (if you are holidaying somewhere really not)

The original album was 4 tracks long, this CD has 6 with the addition of 2 slightly different version of the opening track which was a reworking of Rodrigo’s classical track Concierto De Aranjuez.  In truth these additional tracks add very little to me, maybe they do for Jazz experts but for me it’s record labels justifying the re-release of an album.

As you can guess from the title you get Latin rhythms, rumbas, tango’s  and Davis playing a flugehorn here (whatever that maybe?) but styles and instruments aside this album reminds me of when you are in a remote part of Spain with very little about the sun is high in the sky and you can feel your skin baking in the mid day sun.

Towards the end of his career Davis felt such indifference towards his audience he often performed with his back to them, which kind of makes me like him even more!

Great holiday album but if you haven’t heard Davis before maybe start with Kind Of Blue which is seen by everybody as an absolute classic. 


Mark 7/10


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