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Product Description
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
Product Description
26 track Euro version including previously unreleased tracks! Famous French only soundtrack to the 1950s film noir also known as 'Lift To The Scaffold'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
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.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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...
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Maybe I'm biased, since this is one of my first Miles Davis LPs I bought (no, I don't own the CD), but this is BRILLIANT music,
and Miles show how he could adapt to the cinematic visions of Louis Malle and at the same time remain a magnificent, instantly recognizable MILES. This is one of the most revered fruits of Miles love affair with France (where he felt much more human and appreciated as a musician than in the US; read his autobiography...)...
The European participants of this session are by no means stand-ins for US musicians; Miles works with them beautifully and they work back equally beautifully. Moody, sensitive, inquisitive music, highly recommended to fans of modern jazz, Miles Davis, jazz trumpet, film music...
and Miles show how he could adapt to the cinematic visions of Louis Malle and at the same time remain a magnificent, instantly recognizable MILES. This is one of the most revered fruits of Miles love affair with France (where he felt much more human and appreciated as a musician than in the US; read his autobiography...)...
The European participants of this session are by no means stand-ins for US musicians; Miles works with them beautifully and they work back equally beautifully. Moody, sensitive, inquisitive music, highly recommended to fans of modern jazz, Miles Davis, jazz trumpet, film music...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wrong track listings
I bought this CD yesterday (not from Amazon) and was perplexed because the CD cover showed the tracks that were on the original LP as tracks 17 to 26. Read more
Published 20 days ago by A. N. Jack
cd review
wow too start with this has to be the coolist film soundtrack out there miles and co sound great too a must for soundtrack buffs and of course miles fans its the bees knees
Published 9 months ago by Mr Dee
Miles Davis in his prime, super-cool with a dark and sophisticated...
This recording session from the night of 4-5 December 1957 is one of a very few Miles Davis ever composed in Europe for a European project, in this case the soundtrack to Louis... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Dr. Trang
Captivating!
Miles Davis hit the nail on the head with this extremely seductive and mesmerising soundtrack -- from beginning to end, loved it!
Published 16 months ago by J. C. Finch
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