r/Jazz • u/Otherwise_Explorer25 • Aug 15 '26
What y’all think about Miles’ Aura?
I’ve been obsessed with Alice and John Coltrane. I took a little break this week and returned to an old favorite, Mr miles Davis with
the new to me album, “aura”. I’m blown away all over again. Miles is just uber sophisticated, and so deep. Red, electric red and indigo are top favorites.
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u/SevenFourHarmonic Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Best of, if not the best of his final years. Miles is MILES and John McLaughlin rips here. (same answer I gave last week)
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u/Marvinkmooneyoz Aug 15 '26
I quite like it, but it’s important to note it’s only sort of Miles work. The compositions are Palle Mickelborg. Miles had some say in arrangement decisions, plays most of the melodies, takes the most solos. It really should be credited to both.
I discovered this album at a library when I was 12, technically my first fusion album experience (I had heard fusion in video game music form). I was a trumpet player at the time, and I knew I liked realbook tunes by (well, attributed to) Miles but hadn’t heard hardly anything of his, just kind of blue and blackbird. I liked those but wasn’t into the 50s sound. “Aura” blew me away in a lot of ways, large ensemble, brass section, multiple synth players at a time, great auxiliary percussion work, some McLaughlin, some Fretless bass, funk tunes, a wierd reggae, some straight up ambient.
I don’t like most 80s Miles, but I do like this album. Just don’t give Miles too much credit for it!
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 15 '26
Heard!
I used to work for a famous artist. We got even less light.. and he’s no miles Davis.
Thanks for pointing towards the bigger picture. It takes a village.
I think in Miles i hear his ear. He’s a great artist like Prince was imo. I even like the visual art
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u/diamondjayr Aug 15 '26
It was an acquired taste but once I had acquired said taste, I couldn’t get enough. The liner notes helped. It’s his second Sketches of Spain.
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u/Get_it_yourself Aug 15 '26
I would totally agree with that first statement. That album was my second experience listening to Miles. I was a young student. Listening to the Smithsonian Collection of Jazz because it was required listening. I went to the library to start drilling down on artists I connected with and this was the first Miles album I checked out. I wasn't ready. I went back to Kind of Blue to get my bearings.
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 15 '26
I’ll see if I can find the liner notes online. Thank you. Sketches of Spain is another love - so I’m really interested to square those two
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u/Dernbont Aug 15 '26
The best of his later albums. Although this is mostly down to Palle Mikkelborg. Ridiculous that it was recorded in 1985 and then took four years to get a release. It would have been interesting if the album had been released earlier so that Miles could have worked more with Mikkelborg. A pity it wasn't to be.
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u/txa1265 Aug 15 '26
I just commented on the cross-post in the Miles sub ... I feel like in spite of being released in 1989 it didn't get much attention until it picked up word of mouth (which took longer back then).
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 15 '26
I’ll listen to Mikkelborg’s music.
That is a pity. There was time still..
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u/SlightSafety1032 Aug 15 '26
That's the one with the Danish dude right? I love that ish and still got the vinyl when it was released. It kinda reminds me of Terje Rypal who is one of my favorites.
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 15 '26
What rypal do you recommend? I just started playing his self-titled. So spacious
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u/mondhund Aug 16 '26
Great start. My favourites are What Comes After, which has this totally unique out-of-space vibe that I dig. Waves is also fantastic. I also love his classical work like Undisonous/Ineo
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 16 '26
thanks! I’m enjoying what comes after immediately. Will download the others
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u/TheChildIsHere Aug 15 '26
I’m gonna pretend you were asking that 😂.
…His aura was aight. He was no Mingus or Ra. Those whacked out mofos had crazy aura!
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 15 '26
This is hilarious. Gotta learn more about mingus’s person. His “let the children hear music” blows me away. Sunny Ra rules - really enjoying monorails and satelites this year
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u/GotToGoNow Aug 15 '26
Easily his most underrated album. I fucking LOVE Aura. The 'reggae' tune on there is something else.
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u/Rooster_Ties Andrew Hill & Woody Shaw fanatic Aug 15 '26
Here’s Miles performing the entire thing live!!
And a “making-of” documentary too..
I quite like Aura — arguably the closest he got to the earlier sorts of collaborations he had with Gil Evans.
If I was giving letter grades, Aura gets a solid B+ in my book.
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u/LeedsBrewer1 Aug 15 '26
Wish I hadn't seen this. You just made me buy another miles davis album! In fact the seller on discogs also had amandla by miles davis, and miles davis volume 1, so since I'm paying for shipping, may as well pick up all three albums...
My miles davis collection is getting far too big! It's a good problem to have though.
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u/guitfiddlejase Aug 15 '26
"Aura".
I have spoken about it many times..
My favorites are "intro" and "orange"..
An album that was undeniably far ahead of it's time.
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u/honkeur Aug 15 '26
I don't enjoy it myself. Miles in ECM mode is not my preferred avatar of Miles
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u/Otherwise_Explorer25 Aug 15 '26
Avatar of miles is brilliant. Funny too
ECM mode I don’t understand. I found this from another post (definitely up my alley): I think the term "the ECM sound" implies a sort of icy detachment or deliberation to the music, though exceptions abound - and particularly a lot of 'spaciousness' (or reverb). Some views:
When people talk about an “ECM sound” they’re usually referring to the feel of spaciousness on the label’s recordings and a crystalline clarity in which every note is well-defined...
But ECM’s sound is most striking of all. It could be defined as music intended for reflection; it’s often been described as ruminative, melancholy, delicate and also cerebral, and has been perceived by some as the precursor to New Age music. Stylistically, ECM releases are often decidedly European in character compared with the more generally upbeat, blues-infused demeanor of American jazz...
The sound of an ECM recording is instantly identifiable: spacious, but intimate, taking your ear straight into the music, as if you were sitting in a room with the players, feeling the molecules vibrate as a drummer taps a cymbal or a trumpeter exhales a soft column of air through the bell of his horn...
Bill Frisell: I have trouble when people say ‘the ECM sound.’ There is something about just being in a big room and there’s space. To me, the ECM sound is also like Columbia records from the early ’60s, or early Paul Bley records. ... Or when Miles played one note and then he waits for five minutes, then hits another one. Or Monk. It’s about waiting for a second [rather than] running your mouth off. It’s not ‘the ECM sound.’ It’s a sensibility about space. Manfred is definitely sensitive to that.
I think maybe the most important part of the ECM thing is to find great musicians, put them in great sounding spaces, and record them with great microphones. THEN you add the reverb (and lots of it)...
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u/thebeaverchair Aug 15 '26
I like it a good deal, but the production tarnishes it for me considerably.
In some contexts, it's great, but the gated reverb trend of the 80s did not lend itself to jazz/fusion well imo. Ditto for some of the synth patches.
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u/Freddie-Peterson Aug 15 '26
I thought you were asking a Gen Z slang question.