Flamenco Sketches Presentation

Flamenco Sketches

"Flamenco Sketches" is a Jazz piece written by Miles Davis and his pianist Bill Evans. It is the fifth track off of the most successful and moving Jazz album of all time, "Kind of Blue." "Kind of Blue" was the first of Davis’ innovative workings with modal jazz. Flamenco Sketches is a prime example of this originality in Jazz its self.

Structure

• Slow tempo, usually played as a ballad

• no written melody and is instead organized by improvisation by use of a number of modal scales over established chord changes. These are the scales

• Because there is no written melody, the musicians can play improvised melodies that fit in the composition much more naturally.

Instrumentation

• Miles Davis on Muted Trumpet

Cultural & Musical Influences

Music and Their influences are predictably unpredictable:

Flamenco Sketches, and its album “Kind of Blue”, set themselves apart into their own level

everything about Miles Davis was unconventional and all together, and that is reflected in his music, is likely one of the many qualities that makes him such a classic.

Impact

A Masterpiece?

only took two days to complete, which is a testament to the fact that musicians who participated in the making were among the best jazz artists of their time.

Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is widely considered to be the greatest jazz albums of all time.

The song is timeless and soft, yet exciting, sound simply speaks for itself. Even to listeners who are completely unfamiliar with jazz, it is clear that “Flamenco Sketches” is a true masterpiece.

• names of his songs and their reference and composition, usually derived from random aspects of various importance in his life

• his songs were usually unknown until only hours before he entered the recording studio

• Flamenco Sketches isn't an exception

• Miles worked from certain scales to seek for a smoother, more personal sound

• norm in the jazz of the day was making certain melodies from notes in a chosen chord

• This desire for his own ideas has been one of Jazz’s biggest contributions, and scalar construction non mistaken ably, became the newest norm over time

• Experimented with a never before heard – modal jazz.

• “Flamenco Sketches” managed to showcase a number of influences such as classical, impressionistic, and exotic.

• The music Miles Davis made in this era “inspired countless musicians- everyone from the Doors and James Brown to Weather Report, Q-Tip, and Portishead.

• Musicians from all genres perform, record and study the album's songs, and the influence of the songs on culture beyond music continues to grow.

Miles Davis

• Helped Columbia's legendary 30th Street Studio in Manhattan maintain its great

• Kind of Blue went through a controversy after its release because Davis' pianist claimed to have written some of the music

By Allen Schroeder

• The music also had this pan-cultural theme that inspired a lot of emotion in its listeners.

• Paul Chambers on Double Bass

• Jimmy Cobb on Drums

• Cannonball Adderley on Alto Saxophone

• Bill Evans on Piano

• John Coltrane on Tenor Saxophone

• 4/4 Metrical Time

• homophonic in texture

• Swing style with some latin roots

• most exciting part of the song is the feeling of anticipation the listener gets during the brief quiet moments in between each artist’s part.

• each artist is given a chance to display their own skills.

• By allowing each artist to have a solo, the song was perfectly engineered for each artist to have a chance to improvise and showcase their talents– especially during live performances where the song can be extended as long as necessary

• At just under nine and a half minutes, “Flamenco Sketches” keeps the listener’s attention throughout the entire piece.

• C Ionian
• Ab Mixolydian
• Bb Ionian

• entire album was recorded in Columbia’s world famous 30th Street Studio in Manhattan.

• With the help of engineer Fred Plaut, Irving Townsend masterfully produced the track, capturing the sound of the era’s best jazz musicians perfectly (Micallef 3).

• G Harmonic Minor
• G Dorian