Aranjuez Mon Amor -- Other Versions besides Herb's...?

[Dave]

I was listening to one of my albums by hungarian Jazz guitarist, Gabor Szabo which is entitled Small World, and the last track on there, entitled "Aranjuez De Amor", written by a J. Rodriguez suddenly reminded me of the last track on Herb Alpert's Rise album, "Aranjuez Mon Amor", written by a J. Rodrigo... (notice the slight difference in the spelling of the writer's name, as well as song-title)

From the way Gabor's album of mostly slow ballads (the album is instrumental) never gets above mid-tempo, despite a lot of soloing, I would probably never would have guessed for these to be (almost) the same song...

Dave

...finding a "Small World" in more ways than one...

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Joaquin Rodrigo is the composer, and the official piece is "Concierto de Aranjuez", written for classical guitar and orchestra. Other notable performances are by Miles Davis on his legendary Sketches Of Spain album and the L.A. 4's self-titled album. Chick Corea also used this melody as the intro to his famous piece "Spain", from the Light As A Feather album. I thought I had another version of the actual classical suite, but I can't seem to find it right now. It's definitely worth checking out!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

...Joaquin Rodrigo is the composer, and the official piece is "Concierto de Aranjuez"...

Yes, I meant to write the title as: "Concerto de Aranjuez"--that's how it appears on the Gabor Szabo album...

...written for classical guitar and orchestra...

Right! It is played by Gabor as a seemingly CLASSICAL GUITAR piece! Szabo's Small World if you ever get to hear it, and which was recorded at Metronome Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, is a pretty haunting (and HAUNTED!) and trippy, loopy project! His guitar work ranges from a lot of Classical and Acoustic Pickin' 'N' Strummin' to a lot of Jimi Hendrix-moves and a lotta' just all-out jammin' with Swedish guitarist, Janne Schaffer...! (of ABBA fame, among others--even Solo works!) It is such a great album, I seemed to have stopped my Gabor Szabo collection right there (even being the hard-core 'Szabo 'N' Gabor' fan that I am) since little he did after, seemed as "momentous"...

I guess that is why I sure didn't recognize it right away as the same song Herb did (or rather, IMPROVISED) years later; funny how the Gabor Szabo album got the song-TITLE right and Herb Alpert's Rise LP, at least spelled the composer's NAME right...

Definitely will have to comb through Jazz-Sections at Record Stores to check out Miles Davis' take on this and find the LA-4 version of what made the "in-roads" it has, for it to have been recorded so often by this array of artists...!!



Dave

 

[TonyCurrie]

IIRC there's a version on the "London Stereo 70 Orchestra" album (conducted by Johnny Pearson) that appeared on A & M in 1970. Or was it only released in the UK?