Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Concierto de Aranjuez

So I've been slacking a little in my Vital Flenker Tracks, naming only one so far, but that's something I'm hoping to change in the next hundred posts, along with the Flenker's Thumbs Up movie rating system. Today, I'm introducing a new track, one of my all-time favorites.

In either my junior or senior year of college, I took a trip to Iowa City to see the Chicago Jazz Ensemble perform. The program for the night was Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain, an album recorded in '59/'60. I was taken with the song "Concierto de Aranjuez" from that point on, and I quickly found Davis's version. Ever since then, it has been one of my favorite songs of all-time. (I even made my roommate Dan promise me he'd have it played at my funeral.)

So this song becomes the second Vital Flenker Track, because of its simplicity, its wonderful melody, and just its overall beauty. Enjoy this clip (the only recording I could easily find on the internet) of the middle (Adagio) section. The full song is over 16 minutes long, and ends too quickly every time I listen.

3 comments:

Lucy Doughty said...

wow.. beautiful song, beautiful accompanying scenery.

a Vital Track to be played at your funeral?

heh.

Marin said...

This was on the first mixed cd you made for me, right? Yep, I didn't like it on that cd. But not because I don't like the song (it's beautiful) but because it didn't belong on the mix. {It wasn't your best mix magic}

Flenker said...

lucy - I'm very glad that you like the song!

marin - It was, I put it on there as the last track. I knew it didn't really fit, but I felt like you needed to know the song. :)