Search - Miles Davis :: Aura

Classic

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 12/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the last major work from Miles. 1985. Just as he worked with arranger Gil Evan's in the 1950s, Miles steps in and works with the orchestra of Pele Millkenberg.



Of course the music is totally different. This is dissonant almost-classical music with huge structres spread out over what was a double album. It is electronic and intense. As always, David waltzes into the maximus, and signs his glorious name with his spare soloing.



The link to the rest of Davis' work is John McGlaghlan, who shows up just like he had fifteen years before, lending his rogorous axe work to the grand composition.



This is not B-Brew, In A Silent Way, Sketches, Porky, or Birth Of The Cool, but after four years out of retirement playing light jazz and pop, the sheer ambition of this is refreshing.



If you took all the major works above, they would be bookended by Birth Of The Cool and Aura. And that makes this final moonshot essential."