Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Lift To The Scaffold): Original Soundtrack [SOUNDTRACK]

Miles Davis

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: February 23, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B000004785
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,513 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up with the very best of Miles, January 19, 2004

By	Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Twenty six tracks all written by Mr Davis performed by at least two other legendary musicians - Mr Pierre Michelot, bass, and Mr Kenny Clarke, drums - with sterling support by Mr Wilen on tenor and Mr Urtreger on piano with Mr Davis in an intoxicating love affair with the delicious and iconic actor Jeanne Moreau, must have brought out the best in him. A terrific album without one uninteresting musical moment, which must be included as one of the greatest sound tracks ever, and superior by far to say, Mr Davis at the Blackhawk. Brilliant.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes!, December 9, 2004

By	Jason Malikow (Chicago, IL, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Recorded in one session in 1957 or '58, Miles Davis is backed by Barney Wilen on tenor saxophone, Rene Urtreger on piano, Pierre Michelot on contrabass, and Kenny Clarke on the drums, in this record (Verve 8363052, reissue 20 March 1989), which was also the soundtrack to the Louis Malle film L'Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud.

This is a great record. Not one of the heavyweights of Davis' oeuvre, but absolutely a gem in its own right. The cool, spare compositions foreground Davis' trumpet. From the plaintive wail that opens "Générique" to the relaxed wanderings of "Nuit Sur Les Champs-Élysées," these pieces are as expressive and as emotional as Davis' other work of the same era. Yet the album is not simply Davis-plus-a-band. Barney Wilen's tenor sax is a full and effective counterweight to Davis' trumpet. Throughout "Au Bar du Petit Bac" the two dart and weave around each other, heading in the same direction, walking the same path, but with a difference as vivid and breathtaking as that space between Picasso and Matisse. Kenny Clarke tears it up on "Diner au Motel," playing so fast and far ahead that, at times, Davis seems to be pushing hard to keep pace with his rhythm section.

There is a great deal more to be said for this album, but the one word that comes to mind whenever I listen to any of these cuts, is "Yes." Even the alternate takes are a fascinating look into Davis' thinking, not only at a particular stage of his exploration, but more immediately: after a screening of the film, at the end of a European tour, late at night after a drink. I think this album is often overlooked by less-active jazz fans, and that's a shame. It might be one of the top five cool albums ever.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great "Lost" Miles Davis Album, May 24, 2003

By	William E Donoghue "Fessor Mojo" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Recorded within weeks of Kind of Blue, this was a chance for a love-struck Miles Davis (Juliet Greco, if I am correct) living in Paris for a few months playing his heart out with all of his skills at the peak of his talents with an excellent European band. If you love Kind of Blue, this is Miles with those skills set against musicians and a movie drawing fresh inspiration from him. What a wonderful gift that this is now available with alternative takes.
'fessor Mojo AKA Bill Donoghue