Aura (Miles Davis album)
| Aura | ||||
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| Studio album by Miles Davis | ||||
| Released | September 1989 | |||
| Recorded | January 31–February 4, 1985 | |||
| Studio | Easy Sound Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 66:59 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Palle Mikkelborg | |||
| Miles Davis chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Musichound Jazz | 4/5 |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
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.
The main theme consists of 10 notes, yielded by the letters "M-I-L-E-S-D-A-V-I-S" (see BACH motif, and Schoenberg hexachord "EsCHBEG", and the chart at Musical notes#Accidentals). It is introduced at the beginning over a sustained chord of these same notes. The following 9 movements of the suite represent the colours Mikkelborg sees in Miles's aura.
The music is scored for an extended jazz big band, and the core of the band is formed by the Danish Radio's Big Band, featuring Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Thomas Clausen and Marilyn Mazur. Notable international guests such as John McLaughlin and Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn are featured. The sessions took place in Copenhagen in 1985 at Davis' own initiative, as he had been very honored and satisfied with the suite. It was the first time Miles Davis had recorded with a big band for over 20 years. Aura, however, is not a conventional big band jazz album. The music is perhaps best categorized as fusion jazz with a strong flavor of modern classical music, as many of the orchestral passages reveal Mikkelborg's inspiration from composers like Olivier Messiaen and Charles Ives.
Although the album was recorded at Easy Sound Studios in Copenhagen in 1985, contractual issues delayed its release until 1989. The album won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.
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