Producer: Lalo Schifrin, Engineer: Dick Lewzey, Tracks: Sketches of Miles (All Blues, So What, Miles, Aranjuez, Green Dolphin Street, Oleo, Four, Move); Down Here On the Ground; Chano; Begin the Beguine; Django; Old Friends; Madrigal; Portrait of Louis Armstrong (Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, When it's Sleepytime Down South, Someday, After You've Gone, St. Louis Blues, Some of These Days, Struttin' With Some Barbeque, I Can't Give You Anything But Love)
Jazz meets the symphony, as the title tells us. It is perhaps much more interesting than the London Symphony Orch. doing the songs of Genesis or Jethro Tull. It is also quite a combination as the jazz players let the orchestra fill in some of the spaces in the material, which varies from originals to compositions by Miles Davis, Cole Porter and Louis Armstrong, among others. Interesting stuff, though I almost think the orchestra would be better used as a supporting entity rather than allowing it any real extended space to occupy. That said, some of the places where the two entities mesh can be revelatory. The recording also features Ray Brown, Grady Tate, Jon Faddis, James Morrison and Paquito D'Rivera.
Rating : ***