Product Description

Miles Davis' moody, evocative music for the Louis Malle movie (translation: THE LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD) comes down to us in two different forms on this recent reissue. There is a chronological sketch pad of tracks which didn't appear in the original release, or appeared in altered form, and tracks 16-26, which comprise the body of the original release, complete with the odd dollop of post-production echo ("Generique")to italicise the film's dramatic content.
Recorded on December 4-5, 1957, the music for ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHAFAUD has an elegant, romantic air to it. Harmonically it is fairly simple, quite unlike many of the tunes Davis was then recording for Prestige and Columbia back in the States. In the company of such French jazzmen as Pierre Michelot and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen, ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHAFUAD is something of a throwback to the feel of Miles' early '50s Blue Note recordings with drummer Kenny Clarke. Rarely has Miles' opentone been more poignant, and that bittersweet quality probably owes something to Miles' ongoing affair with the film's leading lady, Jeanne Moreau.
Selections such as "Diner AuMotel" and "Sur L'Autoroute" (featuring Kenny Clarke's incendiary brush work) find Miles and company blowing in a briskgroove, and Wilen proves a coy melodic foil. "Julien Dans L'Ascenseur" features Miles' lovely muted horn bathed in filmnoir echo, while "Au Bar Du Petite Bac" is a bluesy repriseof the main themes, as Miles and Wilen toss weightless phrases back and forth.

Track Listing

1. Générique
2. L'Assassinat De Carala
3. Sur L'Autoroute
4. Julien Dans L'Ascenseur
5. Florence Sur Les Champs-Élysées
6. Dîner Au Motel
7. Évasion De Julien
8. Visite Du Vigile
9. Au Bar Du Petit Bac
10. Chez Le Photographe Du Motel
11. Nuit Sur Les Champs-Élysées
12. Nuit Sur Les Champs-Élysées
13. Nuit Sur Les Champs-Élysées
14. Nuit Sur Les Champs-Élysées
15. Assassinat
16. Assassinat
17. Assassinat
18. Motel (Diner Au Motel)
19. Final
20. Final
21. Final
22. Ascenseur (Evasion De Julien)
23. Le Petit Bal
24. Le Petit Bal
25. Séquence Voiture
26. Séquence Voiture

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15109 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Running time: 72 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Performed by a Miles Davis-fronted European band for a movie by Louis Malle, this music helped define the sound of film noir. It made viewers think the genre's films had always sounded just so, with slow-walking bass beats and muted, slithering horn lines miming the characters on the screen--and underlining their emotions. The melodies here are brief fragments, sometimes rising up only to disappear and then briefly return. This is Miles playing in the moment, improvising musical impressions as he watched the screen. And what he played managed to capture the era of postwar everywhere, while it offered Davis the freedom to test his on-the-spot compositional skills within a minimalist context. How many other beboppers who worked within the shadow of Charlie Parker could have ever recorded these little gems? --John Szwed

Customer Reviews

Another favourite LP by Miles Davis....
Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold) was in many ways the definitive Nouvelle Vague crime movie (later relations included Bande a Part and Tirez Sur La Pianiste); it's soundtrack was also definitively 'new wave.' The great Miles Davis, breaking from his earlier collaborations with Charlie Parker & Gil Evans was on a three-week tour of Europe & somehow ended up scoring Malle's movie in a single-mythic night-time session (which very much seemed to mirror the improvised nature of many New Wave works). Jazz would also be key to several other Nouvelle Vague films, famously A Bout de Souffle (1959) & films such as Le Souffle Au Coeur & Lacombe, Lucien- which used the music of Charlie Parker & Django Rheinhardt respectively.

This Miles is the one that appeals most- the earlier incarnations (e.g. The Birth of the Cool) don't appeal that much to me- it was really 'Flamenco Sketches' that blew my mind (& that came out of this kind of sound). Ascenseur Pour l'echafaud could be seen as a precursor to Davis' more ambient works, notably In a Silent Way & Agharta. This 2003 reissue comes with a wonderful cover (featuring snaps of the gorgeous Jeanne Moreau, one of the film's stars, hanging out with Miles) & great sleevenotes. The original 10-track soundtrack LP is present & remastered; while tracks 11-26 take in a wealth of outtakes: this is certainly great value!

As a previous review has noted, this LP seems very much overlooked in the Miles-canon and along with Kind of Blue (1959) it probably represents the best introduction to the many joys of Miles Davis. To me this sounds like the kind of music you should play on endless sunday mornings as Jeanne Moreau or Jean Seberg flip between feminine and masculine and you smoke Gitane endlessly...

Miles' Hidden Gem
Often overlooked (partly) because it has not been available in many High Street shops, L'ascenseur catches Miles in yet another defining moment during a short stay in Paris. Free flowing music, composed on the spot whilst seeing the movie.
Much more sober in its arrangements, this music score is great jazz - much less boppy and much less orchestrated than much of his previous works. Certainly a "must have" for any Miles fan and a good buy for any newcomer to jazz.