"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 “Générique” 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


Tracklist

01 GÉNÉRIQUE
02 L’ASSASSINAT DE CARALA
03 SUR L’AUTOROUTE
04 JULIEN DANS L’ASCENSEUR
05 FLORENCE SUR LES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES
06 DÎNER AU MOTEL
07 EVASION DE JULIEN
08 VISITE DU VIGILE
09 AU BAR DU PETIT BAC
10 CHEZ LE PHOTOGRAPHE DU MOTEL
11 ON GREEN DOLPHIN STREET
12 FRAN-DANCE
13 STELLA BY STARLIGHT 14 OLD FOLKS*
15 I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU*
16 ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT*
17 SOMETHING I DREAMED LAST NIGHT*
18 THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE*

Total time: 74:09

MILES DAVIS, trumpet on all tracks, plus:
1-10: Film Soundtrack: Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Frantic/Lift to the Scaffold)
BARNEY WILEN, tenor sax;
RENÉ URTREGER, piano;
PIERRE MICHELOT, bass;
KENNY CLARKE, drums.
Paris, December 4 & 5, 1957.

11-13: The Miles Davis Sextet
JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax; JULIAN “CANNONBALL” ADDERLEY, alto sax;
BILL EVANS, piano;
PAUL CHAMBERS, bass;
JIMMY COBB, drums.

New York, May 26, 1958.

*BONUS TRACKS