Of the three major Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaborations, this is the keeper. Where 1957’s Miles Ahead was a collection of discrete pieces, with only their orchestral accompaniment unifying them, and 1958’s Porgy And Bess was an instrumental translation of an opera, Sketches Of Spain is a cohesive work of art, the equal of any of Davis’ small group albums. There’s not as much soloing from Davis as there would be on a more conventional jazz record, because this is about the ensemble, and about the larger sound. But hearing him play the flugelhorn — larger than a trumpet, with a fuller, more expansive sound — is the real draw here. It’s like he’s suddenly grown six inches, and his lungs have expanded to twice their normal size.

The epic opening track, “Concierto De Aranjuez,” is the second movement of a piece written for classical guitar and orchestra by Joaquín Rodrigo. The melody unfolds slowly, with Davis playing it on flugelhorn before the orchestra swells around it into a cloud of sound that’s not quite classical, not quite jazz; the term used in the 1950s and early 1960s was “Third Stream.” It swells and recedes, occasionally swinging and sometimes speeding up, but mostly maintaining its mood. It’s mirrored by the album’s last track, “Solea,” composed by Evans, which is set to a martial rhythm that sounds less like jazz than the soundtrack to a man being marched to the gallows.

In between, there are three short (4-5 minute) tracks, “Will O’ The Wisp,” “The Pan Piper,” and “Saeta,” which sustain the mood between the two big ones. Each maintains the same balance between jazz and Spanish folk themes as the longer pieces, but in a slightly more compressed, more conventionally melodic/songlike form.