Miles Davis
Trumpet Solo on
Flamenco Sketches

About

Closing out the solo section, this trumpet improvisation spans one chorus of the 24-bar form at a ballad tempo of 59 BPM. "Flamenco Sketches" is the meditative closing track of Miles Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue, representing perhaps the purest expression of the modal concept that pervades the entire album. This tune consists of five scales, which are each played as long as each soloists wishes until the series is completed. Miles's path was as follows:

• 4 bars of C ionian (CMaj7)
• 4 bars of Ab mixolydian (Ab7sus)
• 4 bars of Bb ionian (BbMaj7)
• 8 bars of D phrygian (EbMaj7(#11)/D)
• 2 bars of G dorian (Gm7)

Like Coltrane, he spent more time on the darker phrygian mode. With just 2 bars of the last mode, he ends the tune and ends up with the shortest solo of the group with 22 bars. Coming after Bill Evans's piano solo, this is the final improvisation before the ensemble returns to the head.

Miles Davis was 32 to 33 years old at the time.