MILES DAVIS

MILES DAVIS
ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHAFAUD
COMPLETE RECORDINGS (1958)
320 KBPS

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?

1. Générique
2. Assassinat de Carala
3. Sur l'Autoroute
4. Julien Dans l'Ascenseur
5. Florence Sur Les Champs-Élysées
6. Diner au Motel
7. Évasion de Julien
8. Visite du Vigile
9. Bar du Petit Bac
10. Chez le Photographe du Motel
11. Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées [Take 1]
12. Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées [Take 2]
13. Final [Take 1]
14. Final [Take 2]
15. Petit Bal [Take 1]
16. Séquence Voiture [Take 1]
17. Assassinat [Take 3]
18. Diner au Mote
19. Final [Take 1]
20. Final [Take 2]
21. Final [Take 3]
22. Évasion de Julien
23. Petit Bal [Take 1]
24. Petit Bal [Take 2]
25. Sequence Voiture [Take 1]
26. Sequence Voiture (Sur l'Autoroute) [Take 2]