Miles Davis

INCLUDES FREE MP3 ALBUM DOWNLOAD

PERSONNEL:

MILES DAVIS, trumpet on all tracks, plus:

SIDE A: Soundtrack for the film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Frantic/ Lift to the Scaffold):

BARNEY WILEN, tenor sax, RENÉ URTREGER, piano
PIERRE MICHELOTM bass & KENNY CLARK, drums
Paris, December 4 & 5, 1957.

SIDE B:

JULIAN "CANNONBALL" ADDERLEY, alto sax, JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax
BILL EVANS, piano, PAUL CHAMBERS, bass & JIMMY COBB, drums
New York, May 26, 1958.

NOTE: “Fran-Dance” appeared on some issues with the original title of the tune on which it is based: “Put Your Little Foot Right Out” (Larry Spier). Miles dedicated the number to his wife, dancer Francis Taylor Davis.

SIDE A:

01 GÉNÉRIQUE
02 L'ASSASSINAT DE CARALA
03 SUR L'AUTOROUTE
04 JULIEN DANS L'ASCENSEUR
05 FLORENCE SUR LES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES
06 DÎNER AU MOTEL
07 EVASION DE JULIEN
08 VISITE DU VIGILE
09 AU BAR DU PETIT BAC
10 CHEZ LE PHOTOGRAPHE DU MOTEL

SIDE B:

01 ON GREEN DOLPHIN STREET
02 FRAN-DANCE
03 STELLA BY STARLIGHT

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud wasn't the first film to use a jazz soundtrack or to feature jazz musicians. Hollywood began making short films and features with some of the best jazz stars as soon as motion pictures with sound were invented. Duke Ellington had his own short film showcases beginning with the 1929 Black & Tan, many of which also used dancers, effects and strange camera angles. Louis Armstrong's film career began in 1928 (although no print of his first film, titled Ex-Flame, seems to have survived). There were even all-black musical films like A Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, musical comedies featuring a combination of jazz artists and dance acts by some of the most renowned stars of the thirties and forties. However, the novelty of films such as Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud was the absolute integration of jazz music to a feature film whose story had nothing to do with jazz or even with music itself: the utilization of jazz music to emphasize the dramatic action and to develop/support the film's climax. Miles Davis' improvisations fit the dark atmosphere of the film perfectly and contributed greatly to underline the many subtleties of the story and the internal thoughts of its characters. And the most amazing fact of all is that this entire body of music was improvised in the recording studio. Besides being an absolute success, Louis Malle's film set the stage for a new understanding between jazz and film, and probably opened the door for Otto Preminger's 1959 Anatomy of a Murder, a thriller with James Stewart which had a complete soundtrack by Duke Ellington composed especially for the film. The original 10-inch LP contained the complete original suite for Ascenseur pour l'échafaud only, while the posterior original 12-inch LP, titled Jazz Track, added three tracks to Side B from an amazing 1958 session by the Miles Davis sextet including Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, John Coltrane and Bill Evans. - From the liner note