Miles Davis
Aura

Miles Davis said he hadn't listened to his old records for years, and another time he said he played new pieces because the previous ones had bored him. Referring to this album, he wrote in his autobiography: "I think it's a masterpiece, I really do".

Aura is an album that was recorded in 1985 for Columbia, which released it four years later. This upset Miles Davis quite a bit, who left the record company; it was six years before the trumpeter's death, and this is considered by many as his true artistic testament. The compositions are by Palle Mikkelborg, who created the suite for Miles when he received the rare "Leonie Sonnings Music Award" in 1984, as it was usually given to classical music composers. A concert was indeed held for the event. Miles became passionate about Mikkelborg's work and decided to record it in Copenhagen with the Danish Radio Big Band. Mikkelborg's work draws influences from the compositions of Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky (I write this for the record, I would never have written it on my own) from Gil Evans, with whom Palle worked, and of course from Miles's work, because this work is the "in life" tribute to his spiritual/musical guru.

Besides the Danish Radio Big Band, there are interesting names: obviously, Miles Davis's trumpet and Mikkelborg as additional trumpet and flugelhorn; on guitar John McLaughlin (truly spectacular here), who had already worked with Miles on "Bitches Brew", "In Silent Way" (where in the booklet he looked like an English lord in the midst of a bunch of black folks and people slightly off their heads); Miles's nephew, Vince Wilburn, on electronic drums; Bo Stief, a bassist who has worked with Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie; Marilyn Mazur on percussion and other sound effects (Davis liked her so much that he wanted her for his tour); Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on acoustic bass; Thomas Clausen on Piano... Since '63, Miles hadn't played with an orchestra.

The ten-note theme running through "Aura" is based on the letters M.I.L.E.S. D.A.V.I.S., and there are ten tracks that have an introduction and nine colors that represent the spectrum of Davis's light and soul, which is sectioned to return a complex and kaleidoscopic unity, blending Rock, Jazz, Classical, Blues, Reggae. Fusion way of life.

I will be horribly schematic...

Intro - McLaughlin introduces the ten-note theme on the guitar supported by synthesizers in a slow crescendo. Suddenly, the drums and synthesizers begin to hit hard on different constantly changing rhythms. The trumpet enters lightly, duetting with the frenetic guitar, while the keyboards create a blanket of confused and sinister sounds. The piece closes in a circular way, returning to the repetition of the theme, and the sound effects return to the initial relaxed atmosphere.

White - Miles's trumpet starts with a solo, splendid sound effects like triangles, cymbals... slightly introduce themselves regulating the introspective pace of the piece; those vibrations provide respite from the sense of solitude expressed by the song. The trumpet becomes melancholic and begins to repeat the last notes of the piece, ending by closing in increasingly soft sounds.

Yellow - The orchestra divides with the first part composed of a harp and an oboe creating an enchantment, a meadow of beautiful flowers blooming and opening in the sun right before our eyes. But at the end of the same meadow, there are disturbing sounds; in fact, then the guitar introduces the theme, the orchestra becomes powerful, completely changing the piece. The horns, drums, and trombones start, creating a heavy and dark atmosphere. Now in the meadow, there are only venomous trees stretching their branches to catch the unwary, and like in a gothic style, the long walks between dark corridors and the silence of the rain transform into peaks of pure terror.

Orange - a color associated with something about to form. It opens with a guitar solo and drums trying to follow it, while the keyboards are doing "TA-TA" for almost the entire track. After two minutes, Miles becomes the centerpiece of the track; his trumpet becomes increasingly bursting with life and screams invigorated by his sap. Towards the end, horns enter and interstellar sounds begin to spread, while the keyboards shift from "TA-TA" to the distorted "WAH-WAH" (forgive me the frenzy), vaguely reminiscent of "Head Hunters", in short, of funky...

Red - the rhythm slowly ascends, like preparing and lighting a fire where at the center is Miles's solo, surrounded by the coils of trombones and synthesizers to which bass and guitar are added, reaching a moment of suspense that seems to want to blow everything up, risking to "burn" the listener. The drums thunder heavily, and the devil of the underworld dances "Down in the hole". The flames rise ever higher, but just when you think you're finished, the flames return to a level of control.

Green - should be a tribute to Gil Evans, a kind of elegy to nature where Stief's bass is light and restrained. Everything brings back an atmosphere of peace and relaxation. The horns repeat the theme supported by the orchestra and synthesizers, the trumpet introduces softly and duets with the acoustic bass, and vocalist Eva Thysen's voice resonates in the background like the siren's song that captures the senses.

Blue - a small trumpet introduction and you start with a twilight reggae, which slowly rises and then fades away, like a tired bird returning to the nest when night falls, yet enjoying unpredictable flights and very rapid ascents in the middle of the composition (forgive me...), little by little as the trumpet fades out, harp and bell-like sounds are introduced.

Electric Red - wouldn't really be a color from the light spectrum, but Palle and Miles probably liked "Red" so much that they decided to make an alternative version with a variation of horns and Miles who gets lost and begins to pursue a personal sound.                                                                            

Indigo - the only track where Davis is not present, yet it's splendid with very fast and wonderful percussions, lightweight brushes on golden plates, and the piano alternating sweet and frenetic moments (paradoxically one of the best tracks of the album), and then the orchestra tries to follow them with the bass that, in the last part, slowly emerges. R.E.M. phase that anticipates a wonderful dream and which in the last part materializes more powerful than ever through the trombones.

Violet - the last track is a tribute to Miles Davis that starts after a guitar introduction followed by bass and keyboards that create an atmosphere of anticipation, continuing to pass the sound around as if it were a ball, to then begin a wonderful blues that leaves us puzzled and deeply enjoying the work that now unfolds before us just like Miles's career. A violet surface is dug and layers of an increasingly intense violet are discovered.

The review is technocratic (Khephra Burns's article inside the album got me a bit technically), but I hope to have interested the readers and perhaps sparked in some of you a desire to dust off or listen to this truly splendid work that requires listening and attention, but it will undoubtedly reward you.

I will not contradict Miles's words by saying that this "AURA" is a masterpiece. I cannot find a close for my review.

Miles on the cover sits with his hat over his eyes and the trumpet in his hands... he blows, and the orchestra starts to play.