I’ve been listening to Miles Davis’s Aura, released towards the end of his career. It is a suite of tone poems written for a large horn ensemble (and harp) by the Danish composer, Palle Mikkelborg. The pieces are all named after colours. I’m especially fond of Green, a duet with Denmark’s greatest bassist, Niels-Henning Pederson. It is gentle, soothing music on the whole with a bit of John McLaughlin thrown in.
The opening track, called Intro, starts quietly enough, but soon becomes a battle between John and Miles to make the loudest noise. It is nothing like the rest of the album. If you just heard Intro, you would have completely the wrong idea about the mood and style of the whole. It’s a shame because Aura is a very fine album, albeit somewhat long at over an hour. The sensible thing to do is to skip Intro.
Can The Afterword think of any other examples?