Album of the day (#4517): Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud by Miles Davis (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1958.
Country:
Overall rank: 1,266
Average rating: 81/100 (from 205 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Générique
2. L'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. Au Bar Du Petit Bac
10. Chez Le Photographe Du Motel

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[HoldenM]

Though I haven't seen Elevator to the Gallows in years (I bet I'd love it even more now than when I first saw it), I listen to Miles Davis's score for Louis Malle's film, one of his few film score contributions, and one that is almost entirely improvised, all the time. Its as brooding and sexy as you might want for French New Wave crime picture--and is brilliantly utilized in Lee Chang-dong's film Burning from 2018, holding up decades later.

Track picks
1. Générique
4. Julien Dans L'ascenseur
5. Florence Sur Les Champs-Élysées
10. Chez Le Photographe Du Motel
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[Fischman]

LOVE this album.

Just gonna' paste in my diary entry:

Yes, Miles did a soundtrack. The history behind this one is one of the more fascinating of the many fascinating story's linked to Miles. Miles and his band were in Paris for a short engagement and Louis Malle, the director of the film of the same name, took the target of opportunity to get Miles & Co to do the soundtrack. Miles screened the film, writing musical ideas along the way. Within a few days, the ensemble was in the studio, using Miles' sketches as an outline and playing Miles compositions and improvising along the way to loops of the film. Even with relatively little preparation, and no definitive score, the entire recording session took only four hours.... and the results are nothing short of magical.

Before hearing this, I wouldn't have thought of Miles as a film composer, nor would I have thought improvisational jazz to be a good platform for a film score. And I would have been dead wrong. Miles score is so utterly evocative of the sultry side of Paris and its culture of the time, it's hard to comprehend how a mere visitor could have laid it down in such a short time. Of the ten pieces that make up the original soundtrack, only two are fast hard bop tunes; the rest are slow and ever so sultry, prefect for musically capturing and reflecting the smoke filled night air of one of the worlds most romantic... and sexiest... cities.


The, dare I say, French Impressionism, of this music is perfect for Miles style, which is much more about mood than method. Bottom line... this may be the most sensuous music you will ever hear. The closer, Chez le Photographe du Motel, makes for an absolutely perfect climax. If you can listen to this without wanting to grab your mademoiselle and make slow, passionate, burning love to her then, well, you're a stronger man than I.

I daresay this may be one of Miles' greatest achievements.