From Elvis in Memphis: Legacy Edition Celebrates 40th Anniversary of American Studios Sessions

Press release: Elvis In Memphis: Legacy Edition includes 36 Tracks Across 2 CDs, With 10 Original Mono Single Masters

Elvis Presley's Memphis sessions proved that sometimes you can go home again. It was January 1969, and Elvis had not recorded in his hometown since leaving Sun Records for RCA in 1955. But the renewed focus and ambition sparked by his wildly successful TV comeback special the previous month propelled him back into a Memphis studio, where in just two weeks of sessions he made some of the most memorable and artistically satisfying music of his career.

This burst of inspired creativity resulted in the critically acclaimed album From Elvis In Memphis and its companion Back In Memphis. "Suspicious Minds," "In The Ghetto," "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Kentucky Rain" were among the unforgettable hits that resulted. This 40th anniversary Legacy Edition contains every track from the sessions recorded at American Studios in Memphis in January and February of 1969.

From Elvis In Memphis: Legacy Edition in stores July 28th

OUT THIS WEEK: Miles Davis, Iggy Pop

Two recommended releases for you this week, beginning with Legacy's reissue of 'Sketches Of Spain' - the 1959 Miles Davis/Gil Evans classic, with bonus tracks:

Legacy continues its Miles campaign with Sketches of Spain (Legacy Edition) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the trumpeter’s extraordinary collaboration with Gil Evans. When it was released in 1960, it was so different that many critics simply didn’t know what to make of it. When confronted with the question is it jazz? Miles answered, “It’s music, and I like it.” The finished results were ultimately hailed as a masterpiece, creating a hypnotic ‘possessed’ effect, and brought to a fitting climax the period of intense creativity that had begun in 1954.

Each of the four orchestral album collaborations with self-taught arranger-composer Gil Evans – Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy And Bess (1958), Sketches of Spain (1959), and Quiet Nights (1962) – is a masterwork in its own right. Sketches was Miles’s first post-Kind Of Blue project, and retains that LP’s modal feel on the 16-minute version of Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,’ the inspiration for Davis and Evans. Miles Davis – the great improvising soloist. Gil Evans – the great orchestrator. Sketches was the album with which Davis closed the old decade and opened up the new one.

Sketches of Spain (Legacy Edition) includes on 2 CDs what is unanimously regarded as powerful and lasting music, music that represents a compelling blend of the “deep song” of flamenco and the cry of the blues.

This set includes:

* Over two hours of music. The original album along with rehearsal and alternate takes previously heard only on the 1996 set Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings, plus the only piece ever performed live by Miles with Gil – “Concierto de Aranjuez” performed at Carnegie Hall on May 19, 1961.

* Bonus digital booklet with Rare photos, session records with Teo Macero’s producer notes and clippings including the 1960 Hi Fi/Stereo Review article by Nat Hentoff describing the Nov. 15, 1959 recording session.

* New liner notes for this 2009 edition are written by composer/academician Gunther Schuller, whose hundreds of accomplishments in jazz include playing french horn for Miles on the 1949-50 Birth Of The Cool sessions, and recording with Miles and Gil on the 1958 masterpiece, Porgy and Bess.

DISC 1
CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ (ADAGIO) 16:20
WILL O’ THE WISP 3:48
THE PAN PIPER 3:55
SAETA 4:59
SOLEA (12:17)
SONG OF OUR COUNTRY (3:20)

DISC 2
1 MAIDS OF CADIZ (3:47)
2 CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ (ADAGIO)
[REHEARSAL TAKE, INCOMPLETE, W/O MILES DAVIS] (7:23)
3 CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ (ADAGIO)
[ALTERNATE TAKE, PART ONE] (12:06)
4 CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ (ADAGIO)
[ALTERNATE TAKE, PART TWO] (3:34)
5 CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ (ADAGIO)
[ALTERNATE ENDING] (1:04)
6 THE PAN PIPER [TAKE 1] (3:12)
7 SONG OF OUR COUNTRY [TAKE 9, W/O INTRO] (3:00)
8 SONG OF OUR COUNTRY
[TAKE 14, SLOWER TEMPO, W/O INTRO] (3:11)
9 SAETA [FULL VERSION OF MASTER] (6:03)
10 CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ (ADAGIO) [LIVE] (17:07)
11 TEO (9:34)

Also this week, the Ig-uana returns with something more than a little different:





Preliminaires is out this week (UK/Europe) and next Tuesday (US).