Ascenseur Pour l'Échafaud

( 3 )

Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Michael G. Nastos
Jazz and film noir are perfect bedfellows, as evidenced by the soundtrack of Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold). This dark and seductive tale is wonderfully accentuated by the late-'50s cool or bop music of Miles Davis, played with French jazzmen -- bassist Pierre Michelot, pianist René Urtreger, and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen -- and American expatriate drummer Kenny Clarke. These complete recordings, including multiple alternate takes, evoke the sensual nature of a mysterious chanteuse and the contrasting scurrying rat race lifestyle of the times, when the popularity of the automobile, cigarettes, and the late-night bar scene were ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Michael G. Nastos
Jazz and film noir are perfect bedfellows, as evidenced by the soundtrack of Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold). This dark and seductive tale is wonderfully accentuated by the late-'50s cool or bop music of Miles Davis, played with French jazzmen -- bassist Pierre Michelot, pianist René Urtreger, and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen -- and American expatriate drummer Kenny Clarke. These complete recordings, including multiple alternate takes, evoke the sensual nature of a mysterious chanteuse and the contrasting scurrying rat race lifestyle of the times, when the popularity of the automobile, cigarettes, and the late-night bar scene were central figures. Davis had seen a screening of the movie prior to his making of this music, and knew exactly how to portray the smoky hazed or frantic scenes though sonic imagery, dictated by the trumpeter mainly in D-minor and C-seventh chords. Michelot is as important a figure as the trumpeter because he sets the tone, whether on four takes of the ballad/blues "Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées," the last version a bit more swinging than the others; his probing one-note sound with the whispering horn of Davis during "Assassinat" and "Final"; and especially on his solo tracks, the slow walking "Ascenseur" (aka "Evasion de Julien") and the stalking "Visite du Vigile." While the mood of the soundtrack is generally dour and somber, the group collectively picks up the pace exponentially on the hard-swinging and freewheeling "Motel," the hotter "Sequence Voiture," and "Diner au Motel." These selections with the entire quintet featuring Wilen effectively realize chase scenes or mind gears crazily turning. At times the distinctive Davis trumpet style is echoed into dire straits or death wish motifs, as on "Generique" or "L'Assassinat de Carala," respectively, but the band can get kinda blue on takes of "Le Petit Bal," with Davis and Wilen more unified up front. Clarke is his usual marvelous self, and listeners should pay close attention to the able Urtreger, by no means a virtuoso but a capable and flexible accompanist. This recording can stand proudly alongside Duke Ellington's music from Anatomy of a Murder and the soundtrack of Play Misty for Me as great achievements of artistic excellence in fusing dramatic scenes with equally compelling modern jazz music.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 9/18/2007
  • Label: Verve
  • UPC: 602498420980
  • Catalog Number: 000939802
  • Sales rank: 28,307

Album Credits

Performance Credits
Miles Davis Primary Artist, Trumpet
Pierre Michelot Bass
Barney Wilen Tenor Saxophone
Kenny Clarke Drums
René Urtreger Piano
Technical Credits
Miles Davis Composer
Ellen Fitton Mastering
Hollis King Art Direction
Boris Vian Liner Notes
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Customer Reviews

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( 3 )
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Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews

  • Posted October 1, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition
    Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud

    The 'egg' of Kind Of Blue gets fertilized.

    Ascenseur Pour l'Échafaud or Elevator to the Gallows is simply put, to my ears at least, the place where Miles Davis started getting at Kind of Blue. Buy this sound track and Kind of Blue put them in your magic music device and hit shuffle. Sometimes it jars you, but mostly it flows with utter coolness.
    If the universe ever winds down to heat death, billions and billions of years from now, in the pockets of air that may exist it will be the echoes of MILES DAVIS' horn that will be heard there and nothing else.
    How's that for hyperbole?!

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 24, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 31, 2008

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews