20TH CENTURY MASTERWORKS 180g COLOURED VINYL SERIES Contains new specially prepared liner notes by PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ's writer BRIAN MORTON and by Paris' prestigious JAZZ MAGAZINE. MILES DAVIS: ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHAFAUD + bonus track (Orange Vinyl) A Film by Louis Malle with original Music by Miles Davis. "A kind of mythology sprang up around the performances, which involved Miles Davis working without his regular group, and with just the exiled Kenny Clarke from home. Fans have pored over the recordings with more detailed attention than most soundtrack albums ever receive, treasuring such details as the little fleck of skin from the trumpeter's lip that changes the timbre of his instrument on one cue. The recording and the circumstances of its making fitted the idea of the jazz improviser as an existential loner, always on the outside of society, making beautiful or heroic gestures out of nothing." Penguin Guide to Jazz "Beyond the music's fascinating minimalism is Miles' unique sound, which is both distant and close, and absolutely bewitching even 60 years later. "Miles' sound", with or without the mute, would become instantly recognizable. The dark and luminous notes of the celebrated, fabulous "Generique" are today inseparable from Jeanne Moreau's face, and from her nocturnal wandering through the streets of the French capital. This is cinematic jazz." Jazz Magazine 5 Stars Down Beat: "An absolutely fascinating release, this album offers Miles with a group in France, doing the score to a French motion picture. Side 2 is the product of a session recorded in New York when Bill Evans was still a member of the group."
