Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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MIKKELBORG, Palle

(b 6 March 1941, Copenhagen) Trumpet, flugelhorn, keyboards, composer, leader. Self-taught: began on trumpet '56, turned pro '60. Led Danish Radio Jazz Group late '60s, also played in Radio Big Band; formed quintet with drummer Alex Riel (b 13 September 1940, Copenhagen) '66, played at Montreux and Newport '68; own groups V-8 early '70s (with Riel), later Entrance; has worked with Philip Catherine, Don Cherry, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Dexter Gordon, Abdullah Ibrahim, Charlie Mariano, George Russell, vocalist Karin Krog, many others; composed for groups including symphony orchestra, gamelan ensemble; works including 'Aura' '84 for Miles Davis, his great influence. He has mastered the electric trumpet; on a UK tour with Russell early '86 he found thrilling beauty in the new timbres, without Davis's need for rock backing tapes. Plays on ECM LPs Densere '77 in Jan Garbarek/Bobo Stenson Quartet, Waves '78 and Descendre '79 with guitarist Terje Rypdal, L. Shankar's Vision with Garbarek, Theatre '83 by keyboardist/ leader George Gruntz (b 24 June 1932, Basle, Switzerland; d 10 January 2013), with Julian Priester, Sheila Jordan, etc; also Guamba '87 with a Gary Peacock quartet. His own albums include Ashoka Suite '70, Entrance '77 on the Danish Metronome label, Live at Montreux '78 on Atlantic, trio Heart To Heart '86 on Storyville. Balkan Blue '97 by trumpeter Dusko Goykovich (b Jajce, former Yugoslavia, 14 October 1931) features his arrangements.