Aura is a concept album by Miles Davis, produced by Danish composer/trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, released in 1989. All compositions and arrangements are by Mikkelborg, who created the suite in tribute when Davis received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in December 1984, the year Decoy was released. This was Miles Davis's final album released in his lifetime.
Although the album was recorded and finalized in 1985, contractual issues delayed its release until 1989. The album won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. Some copies may have a sticker on jewel case: GRAMMY AWARDS WINNER - BEST JAZZ INTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE (Solist and Big Band) 01-463351-10.
Birdland 1951 · Miles & Coltrane · Miles Davis Quintet at Peacock Alley · Amsterdam Concert · Miles Davis at Newport 1958 · In Person: At The Blackhawk, San Francisco · Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall · Miles & Monk at Newport · Miles Davis Live in Europe · Live at the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival · My Funny Valentine · Four & More · Miles in Tokyo · Miles in Berlin · Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 · Live.
Miles Davis (tpt); Benny Rosenfeld (tpt, flh); Palle Bolvig (tpt, flh); Jens Winther (tpt, flh); Perry Knudsen (tpt, flh); Palle Mikkelborg (tpt, flh); Idrees Sulieman (tpt, flh); Vincent Nilsson (tb); Jens Engel (tb); Ture Larsen (tb); Ole Kurt Jensen (bass tb); Axel Windfeld (bass tb, tuba); Jesper Thilo (reeds, flute); Per Carsten (reeds, flute); Uffe Karskov (reeds, flute); Bent Jaedig (reeds, flute); Flemming Madsen (reeds, flute); Niels Eje (oboe, engl horn); John McLaughlin (el-g); Bjarne Roupee (el-g); Lillian Thornquist (harp); Thomas Clausen. Focuses on the final chapter in the landmark collaboration between Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane: their last live performances together. Recorded in support of Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time. 4CD set includes concerts recorded in Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm from original master tapes.
Aura (1989) is unlike any Miles Davis album. Using an orchestra, as well as an array of beautiful-sounding instruments (such as a harp), it digs deeper than anything in the world of jazz fusion. By the late 80's, Miles was in his 60's, and had nothing left to prove in his legendary career, so he did what he was entitled to: make an album that was appealing to himself. The result is a sometimes trippy modern day fusion sound, sometimes throwback to his heyday of the 1950's and 60's, as well as his electric period of the late 60's onward. Miles returned to New York, but Aura continued to haunt him and early in 1985 he returned to Denmark to record it. In the recording process the piece underwent radical alterations and what began life as a tribute became a true collaboration between Miles and Palle Mikkelborg. On the record Miles plays on eight of the ten movements, soloing extensively.
This is a pretty good Miles Davis album. Its got a uniquely haunting sound.
Listen free to Miles Davis – Aura (Intro, White and more). Miles' last recording for the Columbia label before heading for the financial allure of Warner Bros. in the mid-'80s was not released until 1989. This critic's guess is because largely they had no idea what to do with it. Unlike anything else in his catalog, Aura is a ten-part suite composed by Danish flügelhornist Palle Mikkelborg as a tribute. Influenced deeply by serialism and the inspiration of Gil Evans, Mikkelborg composed a theme from ten notes based on the letters of Davis' first and last.
By Conor Fynes on November 11, 2012. Pin It. If ‘Kind Of Blue’ was Miles Davis’ ode to cultured urbania, then ‘Aura’ shows the civil setting come crashing down around him. Well into the twilight of his career, it was clear that many of his demons were catching up to the tortured genius. The album starts with the aptly (if unimaginatively) titled ‘Intro,’ which at once gives an unsettling feeling to the music through frenetic guitar playing overtop dissonant and awkwardly rhythmic synth backups. From the beginning, the music here does feel quite unbalanced and at times, even jarring to listen to. From the chaotic beginnings however, ‘Aura’ leads into the second track ‘White,’ which soon goes to show the dark symphonic sound here.
Miles Davis: Aura by Todd S. Jenkins, published on September 1, 2000. In 1984 Danish trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg composed this ambitious nine-part suite for Miles Davis, based upon his audial perceptions of the jazz legend’s aura. The suite was recorded in Copenhagen with a large ensemble including John McLaughlin, percussionist Marilyn Mazur (later a regular member of the Davis band), bassists Bo Stief and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, electric drummer Vince Wilbum and 23 other musicians. This exquisitely remastered reissue has corrected a prior sequencing problem, reattached a short horn intro onto track 9 and added some precious clarity to the overall sound.
