Miles Davis’ ‘Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud’ Set For Centennial Reissue
The jazz legend traveled to Paris in 1957 to record the soundtrack for the French film.
The celebration of Miles Davis’ 100th birthday continues with the centennial reissue of Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud. The soundtrack was originally released in 1957 to accompany Louis Malle’s film noir.
The remastered limited editions come in three formats: a 2-CD of the original soundtrack and the complete session takes; an 180g pressing presented in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket with English translation of the original liner notes; and a 3 10-inch LP set comprised of the original soundtrack and the complete session takes. Both vinyl pressings include a session photo of Miles and Jeanne Moreau taken by the film’s stills photographer, Vincent Rossell, and Franck Bergerot’s essay “A Present from Miles Davis to Louis Malle.”
The 2-CD is accompanied by a 60-page illustrated booklet with photos by the film’s stills photographer, Vincent Rossell, and Jean-Pierre Leloir; film iconography from Cinémathèque Française; and album notes by Franck Bergerot and Ashley Kahn.
Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud, which premiered in 1958, was eclipsed by the praise of Davis’ definitive work on the soundtrack. The legendary musician opted for modal jazz, which emphasizes scales rather than the chordally dense bebop that was more popular in the decade prior.
It was French film director and screenwriter Jean-Paul Rappeneau who suggested Davis to Malle. The musician agreed to record the soundtrack after attending a private screening. He was already in Paris for a performance at the Club Saint-Germain in November 1957. The following month, he and his bandmates improvised the soundtrack in his hotel room while edited loops of the film projected in the background.
“I was a jazz nut … the music for Ascenseur is unique. It’s one of the few film scores that was entirely improvised,” Malle said of working with Davis. “I’d play the sequences we wanted music for, and he’d start rehearsing with his musicians … the film was transformed … When we added the music, it suddenly took off.”
The new edition of Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud is the latest in a series of celebrations of Davis’ centennial. It includes a reissue of 1957’s Birth Of The Cool, tributes from Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland Jazz; a SFJAZZ Gala celebrating both Davis and John Coltrane; and a forthcoming biopic, Miles & Juliette, which will star Damson Idris as the musician.
