CÆCILIE NORBY WITH LARS DANIELSSON — Arabesque (2010) FLAC (tracks+.cue) lossless

Not only for classical music lovers, jazz freaks or pop fans, but for everyone who loves good melodies. ACT
Tracklist :
1    The Dead Princess    4:08
2    Wholly Earth    4:27
3    No Air    3:58
4    No Phrase    4:18
5    Bei Mir Bist Du Schöen    3:39
6    The Tears Of Billie Blue    5:30
7    Women Of Santiago    3:40
8    Pavane Opus 50    4:40
9    Scheherazade    4:01
10    I Will Say Goodbye    3:48
11    Simple Theme    4:25
12    Hvirvelvinden    3:36
13    Forever You    4:36
14    Nocturne    3:56
– BONUS TRACK –
15    How Oft    3:01
Credits :
Cæcilie Norby - Vocals
Lars Danielsson - Bass, Cello, Git, Organ
Bugge Wesseltoft - Piano, Synth
Katrine Gislinge - Piano
Ulf Wakenius - Guitar
Palle Mikkelborg - Trumpet
Hans Ulrik - Flute, Bass-Clarinet
Anders Engen, Xavier Desandre-Navarre - Drums & Percussion

PHILIP CATHERINE — September Man (1974-2017) RM | Vinyl, LP | FLAC (tracks), lossless

Credit where credit is due: Palle Mikkelborg - trumpet, piano, Jasper van't Hoff - keyboards, Charlie Mariano - saxes + flute, John Lee - bass and Gerry Brown - drums. Catherine mostly on electric guitar but also occasional acoustic moments. It is never loud but still very intense, rarely fast but far from lame. While there are great solos throughout, the other players are not pushed to the background by the one in the spotlight but instead respond and challenge. This is more of a band album than a guitarist's showcase. Roxanne Walsh
Tracklist :
A1     Nairam    4:30
    Composed By – Ph. Catherine
A2     Nineteen Seventy Fourths    9:44
    Composed By – J. Lee
A3     T.P.C.    4:30
    Composed By – P. Mikkelborg
A4     September Man    0:30
    Composed By – Ph. Catherine, Instruments [All Instruments] – Philip Catherine
    When It Is
    Composed By – P. Mikkelborg
B1a     The Beginning     5:59
B1b     The Middle     10:00
B1c     The End    2:43
    Piano [Acoustic Piano] – Palle Mikkelborg
B2     Monday 13    2:05
    Composed By – Ph. Catherine, Instruments [All Instruments] – Philip Catherine
Credits :
Bass [Basses] – John Lee
Drums – Gerry Brown
Guitar [Guitars] – Philip Catherine
Piano, Organ – Jasper Van't Hoff
Saxophone [Saxophones], Flute [Flutes] – Charlie Mariano
Trumpet – Palle Mikkelborg

JAKOB BRO - Returnings (2018) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Danish guitarist Jakob Bro plays jazz as if in a dream; a harmonic sparkle of ocean spray, dispersing on a rocky shore. It's a sound he displays to potent, soothing effect on his third album for ECM, 2018's Returnings. Joining him are longtime bandmates drummer Jon Christensen, bassist Thomas Morgan, and legendary Scandinavian jazz trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg. While this is Bro's third outing for the storied European label, he has been recording since the early 2000s, and got early experience with luminaries such as Paul Motian and Tomasz Stańko. He brings all of that experience to bear here, collaborating with his bandmates on a set of deeply evocative, soulful, yet always restrained performances. Mikkelborg, who began his career in the '60s, is the perfect addition to Bro's ensemble, offering his lyrical lines and warm, somewhat mournful, Miles Davis-esque tone. Tracks like the opening "Oktober," with its far-eyed, Spanish-tinged melody, and the supple "Song for Nicolai" bring to mind a minimalist take on Davis' work with Gil Evans. Similarly, the eerie title track is a dissonant fever dream, with Mikkelborg and Bro filtered through a refraction of delay effects, like jazz played on the surface of the moon. Bro also clearly loves space and openness in his improvisations, and offers his bandmates plenty of room to express themselves. "View" begins with extended interplay between Morgan and Christensen, before the rest of the group enters from the aural mist. Though subtle and rife with harmonic nuance, there is a straightforward sensibility to many of the songs here, a style that recalls the work of fellow guitarist Bill Frisell. The sweetly played "Lyskaster" sounds like a Nordic cowboy song, as if the band is performing campside at the edge of an expansive fjord. Matt Collar  
Tracklist :
1    Oktober 4'19
(Jakob Bro)
2    Strands 4'43
(Jakob Bro)
3    Song For Nicolai 5'19
(Palle Mikkelborg)
4    View 8'38
(Jakob Bro)
5    Lyskaster 5'03
(Jakob Bro)
6    Hamsun 5'14
(Jakob Bro)
7    Returnings 5'36
(Jakob Bro, Palle Mikkelborg)
8    Youth 2'37
(Palle Mikkelborg)
Credits :
Jakob Bro   Guitar
Palle Mikkelborg   Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Thomas Morgan   Double Bass
Jon Christensen   Drums

SHANKAR / JAN GARBAREK / PALLE MIKKELBORG - Vision (1983) APE (image+.cue), lossless

L. Shankar's Vision is an ethereal tour-de-force -- an oxymoron, perhaps, but an appropriate description of the otherworldly visions he conjures with his manipulations of his 10-string, stereophonic, double-necked, electric violin. The lengthy title track is a solo space journey on his massive instrument, with lots of phasing undercurrents and an aural experience of weightlessness that is rather pleasant. On the other tracks, Shankar is flanked by the hot, piercing Jan Garbarek on saxes and the cool Palle Mikkelborg on trumpet and flugelhorn, who contribute heat and ice to Shankar's textures. "All For You" is a no-man's-land of sound that uses Indian scales and minimalist repetition. "Psychic Elephant" finds Garbarek and Mikkelborg revolving around Shankar's pizzicato violin, and then the two horn players provide percussion for Shankar's dialogues with himself and Garbarek's growls on the rare bass saxophone. Exotic pan-cultural ingredients and all, Vision is reassuringly easy to listen to, undoubtedly aided by ECM's sweetly reverberant sound. by Richard S. Ginell
Tracklist :
1    All For You    6:36
Shankar
2    Vision    13:43
Shankar
3    Astral Projection    5:43
Shankar
4    Psychic Elephant    11:50
Shankar
5    The Message    7:32
Shankar
Credits :
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Saxophone, Percussion – Jan Garbarek
Trumpet, Flugelhorn [Fluegelhorn] – Palle Mikkelborg
Violin [10-String Stereophonic Double Violin], Percussion By – Shankar

MILES DAVIS - Aura (1989) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Miles' last recording for the Columbia label before heading for the financial allure of Warner Bros. in the mid-'80s was not released until 1989. This critic's guess is because largely they had no idea what to do with it. Unlike anything else in his catalog, Aura is a ten-part suite composed by Danish flügelhornist Palle Mikkelborg as a tribute. Influenced deeply by serialism and the inspiration of Gil Evans, Mikkelborg composed a theme from ten notes based on the letters of Davis' first and last names. The notes yielded a chord, which led him through the work. Employing a full orchestra and the guitar talents of former Davis collaborator John McLaughlin and famed European bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pederson, Aura's sections are named for the color spectrum, with the addition of white and "electric red." The music is an amalgam of classical impressionism, European new music, jazz, rock, electronic, and other genres. As a tribute and separate orchestral work, it's quite moving and beautiful, full of moody interludes and evocations of nuance, color, texture, and dynamic. With Davis added, soloing in his trademark muted, rounded warmth, the music becomes almost breathtaking. The Gil Evans influence is everywhere apparent in the way strings segue into keyboards and float there until the trumpet or wind section comes for them and brings them home. It's easy to be cynical about a work like this, and call it a pastiche of Miles clichés. Far harder is it to place the entirety of Davis' career in one place and hear it expressed with so much warmth and elegance, because that career was so mercurial. Mikkelborg gave Miles a fine parting gift when he left Columbia, and listeners are so very fortunate for his generosity.  by Thom Jurek 
Tracklist:
1 Intro 4:25
2 White 6:02
Soloist, Guitar – John McLaughlin
3 Yellow 6:45
4 Orange 8:34
Soloist, Guitar – John McLaughlin
5 Red 9:56
6 Green 4:20
Soloist, Acoustic Bass – Niels Henning Oersted Pedersen
Soloist, Fretless Bass – Bo Stief
7 Blue 6:33
8 Electric Red 4:16
9 Indigo 5:58
Soloist, Acoustic Bass – Niels Henning Oersted Pedersen
Soloist, Piano [Acoustic] – Thomas Clausen
10 Violet 9:01
Soloist, Guitar – John McLaughlin
Credits:
Bass – Niels Henning Oersted Pedersen
Bass Trombone – Axel Windfeld, Ole Kurt Jensen
Cor Anglais, Oboe – Niels Eje
Drums – Lennart Gruvstedt
Electric Bass [Fender Bass], Fretless Bass – Bo Stief
Electronic Drums – Vince Wilburn
Flugelhorn [Additional], Trumpet [Additional] – Palle Mikkelborg
Guitar – Bjarne Roupé, John McLaughlin
Harp – Lillian Thornquist
Keyboards – Kenneth Knudsen, Ole Koch-Hansen, Thomas Clausen
Percussion – Ethan Weisgaard, Marilyn Mazur
Piano – Thomas Clausen
Saxophone, Woodwind – Bent Jaedig, Flemming Madsen, Jesper Thilo, Per Carsten, Uffe Karskov
Trombone – Jens Engel, Ture Larsen, Vincent Nilsson
Trumpet – Miles Davis (tracks: 1 to 8, 10)
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Benny Rosenfeld, Idrees Sulieman, Jens Winther, Palle Bolvig, Perry Knudsen
Vocals – Eva Thaysen