Aura (Miles Davis album)

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aura
Studio album by Miles Davis

Publication
(s)

1989

admission

January 31 - February 4, 1985

Label (s) Columbia Records

Format (s)

CD, Thursday LP

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

10

running time

66:54

occupation
  • Trumpet: Miles Davis
  • Trumpets: Jens Engel, Ture Larsen, Vincent Nilsson, Ole Kurt Jensen, Axel Windfel
  • Harp: Lillian Thornquist
  • Singing: Eva Thaysen

production

Palle Mikkelborg, George Butler

Studio (s)

Easy Sound Studio, Copenhagen

chronology
Amandla
(1989) 		aura Dingo
(1992)

Aura is a music album by jazz musician Miles Davis , in which all pieces were composed and arranged by Palle Mikkelborg . It won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance (Big Band) in 1990; Davis received another Grammy for his solo performance.

History of origin

Palle Mikkelborg composed Aura in 1984 after Miles Davis won the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in November 1984 . Davis refused to accept the award, so Erik Moseholm , one of the advisors on the award committee, was sent to the United States to talk to him and convince him. After Davis had seen the list of previous winners, he felt honored, as this award had previously been reserved for white classical musicians.

One condition of the award was that the winner had to make music in Copenhagen during the award ceremony. The award committee wanted to have a newly composed work performed. First, Gil Evans was contacted; after the latter made no proposal, the committee asked two composers living in Denmark, the American Ray Pitts and Mikkelborg, who were both to contribute compositions for the celebration. The resulting composition by Mikkelborg was a mixture of "orchestral and electronic music".

The composition, which is reminiscent of Gil Evans in some of its timbres, wanted to capture the musical "aura" of Miles Davis. Mikkelborg was able to persuade Davis to take part as a trumpeter himself in the recording "with the best Danish jazz musicians", which he made with a formation around the Danish Radio Big Band , which was expanded by a few prominent guests . It was Miles Davis' first recording with a big band in 22 years. Although the recordings were made in 1985, the CD was not released until 1989.

It was the last Miles Davis album to be released on Columbia Records . As Davis wrote in his biography, Columbia dumped him and he had to fund the recordings for the album with funds from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. According to the record company's vice president George Butler, who insisted on releasing the album after listening to the tapes, the marketing department had failed to understand the importance of the album and felt that the album was barely for sale. Due to the delay of several years, Aura was only released in parallel with the Davis album Amandla .

Davis met his future percussionist Marilyn Mazur while recording. He brought his nephew Vincent Wilburn to the recordings in order to achieve a "certain drum sound" that he knew from previous albums. He also switched to guitar after the start of recording after hearing that John McLaughlin happened to be in the Danish capital.

The music

Mikkelborg built the opening movement of the ten-movement suite on the ten letters of the name MILES DAVIS; each of which he equates with certain tones in order to derive the basic chord for the piece from one. The piece begins with McLaughlin's guitar and then moves on to the theme derived from the name. The other movements are named after the colors in which the composer supposedly perceived the aura of Davis; the sentences continue to stand for certain periods in Davis's oeuvre. According to Mikkelborg, the piece was intended as “an orchestral homage to his life in these seven colors”.

It was originally planned that Davis would only contribute a solo in the last movement.

Davis was very impressed with the size of the orchestra and the idea behind the composition. Davis finally came back in 1985 after finishing recording You're Under Arrest to play Aura . In the end he played in almost every movement; he also caused some of the written material not to be used. Only in Indigo is Davis not heard.

Todd S. Jenkins said of All About Jazz about the album, it was the album from the post- Bitches-Brew phase, which could be considered "essential": "Pure magic, from the first to the last note." For Wes Long the album is a “masterpiece” and “probably the last monumental achievement” in the trumpeter's oeuvre. All Music , however, only awarded the album three out of five stars.

Palle Mikkelborg (2011)

Track list

  1. Intro - 4:48
  2. White - 6:07
  3. Yellow - 6:55
  4. Orange - 8:41
  5. Red - 6:05
  6. Green - 8:13
  7. Blue - 6:36
  8. Electric Red - 4:19
  9. Indigo - 6:06
  10. Violet - 10:04

All pieces were composed and arranged by Palle Mikkelborg.

literature

  • George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991 University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-03260-0 .

References and footnotes

  1. ^ A b George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 183.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe : The Autobiography. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1990.
  3. ↑ a b c review at PopmattersCom
  4. ↑ CD booklet from Aura
  5. ↑ George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 189.
  6. ↑ George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 193.
  7. ↑ George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 188.
  8. ↑ George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 184.
  9. ↑ At the celebration on December 14, 1984 it was the same. Due to the violent applause, this sentence, Violet , was repeated. Then John Scofield , who was the guitarist on this occasion , agreed the Davis composition Jean-Pierre , on which Davis improvised with the band for 14 minutes. Then Mikkelborg surprised Davis when the band started singing Time after Time . See George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 184f.
  10. ↑ Originally, the ceremony was to open with the play by Mikkelborg; the composition of pitts should complete the celebration. Davis arranged for the order to be changed, as aura was the central piece for him . See George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 185.
  11. ↑ It came as a surprise to Mikkelborg when Davis called him on the night of January 15, 1985 and said he wanted to come in two weeks to record the album. See George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 186.
  12. ↑ George Cole: The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. P. 186.
  13. ^ Review at All About Jazz

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