New Sketches of Spain

Shows

Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis ranks among the so-called Top Ten best-selling albums of all time recorded by jazz musicians, particularly those that have earned at least one “platinum record” (in the United States, one million copies sold). It is the best-known example of a jazz style known as third stream — that is, the meeting point between jazz and classical music and, more specifically, various forms of world music. The album’s success was primarily driven by its opening track, a distinctive version of the second movement, Adagio, from Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

The inspiration for the creation of the album came to Davis after he accompanied his wife, Frances Taylor Davis, to a performance by flamenco dancer Roberto Iglesias. (It should not be forgotten that Frances, at the height of her career as a dancer — including work with the Katherine Dunham Company and later as the first African American principal dancer to perform with the Paris Opera Ballet — gave up her career to follow Miles’s.)

Everything about Sketches of Spain is memorable, from the cover artist, the Spanish painter Antonio Garcia Flores, to producer Teo Macero, who began his collaboration with Davis at Columbia Records with this album — a partnership that would continue through and beyond Bitches Brew (another platinum record, surpassed only by the five-times-platinum Kind of Blue).

Released in the summer of 1960, Sketches of Spain concluded an extraordinary twelve-month trilogy of recordings: Kind of Blue (by far the most famous album in jazz history), Jazz Track (which included the soundtrack to Elevator to the Gallows), and Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet (featuring “It Never Entered My Mind,” “Four,” and “In Your Own Sweet Way”).

All of this was well known to American trumpeter Michael Leonhart, who conceived and created these new Sketches of Spain with his septet specifically for Israel Galván — flamenco choreographer and dancer, and an absolute star of the contemporary dance world — through whom Sketches of Spain returns to what, ultimately, it was originally meant to be: an extraordinary and in its own way unique example of music to dance to.

Israel Galván

His dancing is supernatural, not only because of his virtuosity as a performer, but also because of his relentless pursuit of excess, of disproportion between human gesture and what music—or silence—cannot express. Here is Andalusia, dust and light, purple skies and shadows as black as Bibles. Here is Aranjuez, the intoxication of melancholy, the meridian demon, the mourning of gardens. Here are the Holy Week processions, the ritual songs from the balconies, the tormented and proud solitude. Emotions embodied in the impetus of a single polyphonic body.
Israel Galván is a flamenco innovator, renowned for creating a unique expressive style that combines fragmented movements with contemporary elements, expanding the traditional language of dance. Winner of the National Dance Award in 2005, he has received major international awards such as the Bessie Award, the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, and the title of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Born into a family of Sevillian dancers, Galván began his career with the Compañía Andaluza de Danza in 1994, collaborating with prominent artists. Since his first show in 1998, “¡Mira! / Los Zapatos Rojos,” he has revolutionized flamenco with works such as “La Edad de Oro” and “Lo Real.” In recent years, he has explored new artistic territories with shows such as Torobaka and Carmen (2024), and interdisciplinary collaborations ranging from cinema to robotics. A leading figure in modern dance, he is also an Associate Artist at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris.

Michael Leonhart

If Gil Evans succeeded, in Miles' words, in making an orchestra sound like a single guitar, Michael Leonhart's arrangement and orchestration for the small ensemble produced by Alberto Fabris reveal even more clearly the movement of rhythms and harmonic constellations, the purity of melodies, the indestructible force of the ancient Arabic scales that dig, bend, and twist in the soul like an Andalusian blues. After all, Spain has never moved from here, from this first hybridization of Black Africa into a music that, centuries later, would be called jazz.
Michael Leonhart is a talented trumpeter, composer, and producer from New York, known for his versatility and ability to range across different musical genres, from jazz to pop and experimental music. He conducts the Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO), with which he has collaborated with prominent artists such as Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, and Donny McCaslin, and recently with Elvis Costello on the album “The Normyn Suites.” Winner of a Grammy at the age of 17, he has collaborated with renowned artists such as David Byrne, Mark Ronson, and Steely Dan, for whom he was also arranger and conductor on the Grammy-winning album “Two Against Nature.” In addition to releasing seven solo albums and two with the MLO, he has worked on soundtracks, television projects, and musicals such as “Fela!”. His career is characterized by relentless musical exploration and
collaborations that cement his role as an influential figure in contemporary music.