There seems to be a bit of disagreement in the critic community over Miles' album Sketches of Spain... Personally it is my second favorite album of his (behind Kind Of Blue)... Wondering what opinions others had of that album... The reason I am curious is because some critics (fans and historians) have remarked that they felt some of the Gil Evans arrangements were a bit "soft"... That softness is what really gives balance to the album in my opinion... I really love the album...

Any thoughts?


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Excellent album. Not my second favorite, probably not even in my top five, but all of the fantastic Miles Davis albums can hardly be constrained to five.

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Well, I only have 9 Miles albums (although I have heard just about his whole catalog through the new Napster, Rhapsody and other online sources), but so far I only have downloaded a few (that adds to the original 6 Miles albums I already had on CD)... I actually was considering burning a copy of Miles Ahead tonight (I know, I know, that is an album I should have had decades ago, but I am not nearly the jazz freak that most of you are, )...

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Hey jazzfromhell, I have to disagree with your quote from Duke Ellington... I think the artist often can't "hear" the result of their performance very often... By being in the eye of the hurricane they often don't get how their art is affecting others and in my experience I find the artist's view of their own work a very very very limited view... Now, I do understand that they are the only ones who know if they achieved their goal in what they were trying to set out to do, but as far as the final product, I don't think they often get the art's impact...

In fact, I base virtually all of my music critique's around this notion... People often get so hung up on the artist that they can't seperate the art from the artist... When I was 15 I thought John Lennon had all the answers (on his view of the world, his music, and the music of others)... After researching his life years later I realized how easy it is to get caught up in idolizing the artists who's music you like without realizing they are just people who have faults just like everybody else... And you often find the artist themselves view their work totally different than 90% of their audience...

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I love Sketches of Spain. It's my favorite Miles' record and probably my favorite non-Coltrane jazz record.

This is probably one of my least favorite Miles Davis records that I have heard, the other being Porgy and Bess

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For the reasons I listed in my initial post??

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I'm not sure what those critics meant by "soft" so I'm not sure. I think it sounds a bit unstructured. Like a bunch of unrelated themes that go nowhere. But that's me.

Definately not my favorite Miles Davis record. I can see why it's good, but I don't listen to it very often. Possibly because it feels a bit soft or smooth, I like my noise.

I just decided to bump this thread to make a kind of footnote.

Sorcerer is a great record.