Miles Davis soundtrack reissued for centenary
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- Miles Davis's 1957 Ascenseur pour l’Échafaud soundtrack has been reissued on vinyl and CD with restored audio, archival photographs, and new essays to mark his 100th birthday.
- The original score was recorded in a Paris studio in December 1957, featuring Davis on trumpet, Kenny Clarke on drums, and Barney Wilen on tenor saxophone, improvising over a handful of chords to match Louis Malle’s noir thriller.
- The release highlights the soundtrack’s harmonic openness, a precursor to the modal approach Davis would later employ on 1959’s Kind of Blue.
- Hedvig Mollestad issued the power‑trio album Weejuns, which nods to Davis’s 1969 Bitches Brew on the track “Bitches Blues”.
- Jason Miles launched a new project revisiting the groove‑centric era of Davis’s late‑60s work, featuring a band that includes a trumpeter and reflecting Davis’s admiration for Prince.
Why it matters: Jazz aficionados and record collectors gain fresh, high‑fidelity access to a seminal soundtrack, while the reissue drives catalog sales and reinforces Miles Davis’s lasting influence on modern jazz.
