Album

Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud

Miles Davis

1958 · Jazz, Stage & Screen

34 collectors on Gatefold own this

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Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud by Miles Davis

Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud is a Jazz album by Miles Davis, originally released in 1958. On Gatefold: 145 pressings tracked, owned by 34 collectors.

About

These 10 brief pieces aren't just Miles Davis at his absolute-zero coolest, they mark a significant shift in his sound. Invited by Louis Malle to score the director's debut feature <i>Ascenseur pour l'échafaud</i>, a stylish <i>Nouvelle Vague</i> crime thriller, Davis and his touring band improvised these moody, austere cues. Their stark modal simplicity, from the melancholy ache of "Chez le Photographe du Hotel" to the sly cockiness of the swinging "Au Bar du Petit Bac," gives the soundtrack a bracing dose of Gallic sangfroid.

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Tracklist

  1. 1Générique (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:48
  2. 2L'assassinat de Carala (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:09
  3. 3Sur l'autoroute (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:18
  4. 4Julien dans l'ascenseur (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:09
  5. 5Florence sur les Champs-Élysées (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:52
  6. 6Dîner au Motel (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")3:57
  7. 7Évasion de Julien (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")0:53
  8. 8Visite du vigile (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:03
  9. 9Au bar du Petit Bac (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")2:52
  10. 10Chez le photographe du Motel (BOF "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud")3:50
  11. 11Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées (Take 1)2:25
  12. 12Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées (Take 2)5:22
  13. 13Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées (Take 3)2:53
  14. 14Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées (Take 4)3:00
  15. 15Assassinat (Take 1)2:03
  16. 16Assassinat (Take 2)2:11
  17. 17Assassinat (Take 3)2:10
  18. 18Dîner au Motel (Take 2)3:57
  19. 19Final (Take 1)3:05
  20. 20Final (Take 2)3:01
  21. 21Final (Take 3)4:05
  22. 22L'interrogatoire de Julien5:15
  23. 23Évasion de Julien (Take 2)1:57
  24. 24Le Petit Bal (Take 1)2:40
  25. 25Le Petit Bal (Take 2)2:55
  26. 26Séquence voiture (Take 1)2:57
  27. 27Séquence voiture (Take 2)2:18

Sound DNA

  • Jazz
  • Bebop & Hard Bop
  • sparse
  • brooding
  • cinematic

Album notes

Discogs page for these notes (opens in a new tab)

Release Date: 1958
Recording Period: Dec 1957
Miles Davis, Trumpet
Barney Wilen, Tenor Saxophone
René Urtreger, Piano
Pierre Michelot, Bass
Kenny Clarke, Drums
This soundtrack with the musical cues for Louis Malle's 1958 film Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud was recorded at Le Poste Parisien Studio in Paris on December 4 and 5, 1957.
Jean-Paul Rappeneau, a jazz fan and Malle's assistant at the time, suggested asking Miles Davis to create the film's soundtrack - possibly inspired by the Modern Jazz Quartet's recording for Roger Vadim's Sait-On Jamais (Does One Ever Know), released a few months earlier in 1957.
Davis was booked to perform at the Club Saint-Germain in Paris for November 1957. Rappeneau introduced him to Malle, and Davis agreed to record the music after attending a private screening. On December 4, he brought his four sidemen to the recording studio without having had them prepare anything. Davis only gave the musicians a few rudimentary harmonic sequences he had assembled in his hotel room, and, once the plot was explained, the band improvised without any precomposed theme, while edited loops of the musically relevant film sequences were projected in the background.
The soundtrack was not released on its own in the USA but ten songs from this soundtrack were released as one side of the album Jazz Track which received a 1960 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance, Solo Or Small Group.
This soundtrack might also be referred to as Elevator To The Gallows (literal translation of the French title), also known as Frantic in the US, also known as Lift To The Scaffold in the UK.
Also on CD via
Legrand Jazz + Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud
The Complete Recordings 1945 - 1960 (Europe 2011) (opens in a new tab)
Thirteen Classic Albums Plus Live & Bonus Tracks (UK & Europe 2012) (opens in a new tab)
Four Classic Albums (UK 2013) (opens in a new tab)
Ascenseur Pour L´échafaud / Un Témoin Dans La Ville - Two Original Soundtrack Albums (Europe 2015) (opens in a new tab)
Paris Noir (Italy 2017) (opens in a new tab)
The Cinema Of Miles Davis
Seventeen Classic Albums Volume Two (UK & Europe 2017) (opens in a new tab)
Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud (Spain 2015) (opens in a new tab)
The Classic Albums Collection (UK & Europe 2023) (opens in a new tab)

Credits

The people behind it.

Performers

34 collectors on Gatefold own this · 145 pressings tracked on Gatefold

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