Rolling Stone described him as “the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century” and it’s hard to argue with that appraisal of Miles Davis (1926–1991) the American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Not to everyone’s taste for sure (and certainly not to the other adult sharer of my household, who pretty much loathes the entire genre of jazz) and challenging at times to even the most willing of new listeners, but he is one of the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz.
Born in Alton, Illinois to a well-to-do family (he was born Miles Dewey Davis III), Miles went to study at the celebrated Juilliard School in New York, but dropped out and sought out, befriended and soon joined saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker’s bebop quintet, collaborating with him from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the ground-breaking Birth of the Cool sessions which would become the defining recording of the “cool jazz” genre, and in the early 1950s he recorded some of the earliest “hard bop”, the funky offshoot of bebop music. Ever innovative, he was always pushing the envelope and inventing genres along the way.
Davis signed a long-term contract with Columbia Records, and recorded the album ‘Round About Midnight in 1955. It was his first work with saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Paul Chambers, key members of the sextet he would lead into the early 1960s and with whom he would rule the jazz world. During this period, he alternated between orchestral jazz collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, and band recordings, such as Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959), the latter recording selling over five million copies in the US.
The piece I have singled out for our delectation today is a piece of cinematic cool, combining Miles Davis’s musical soundscape with some typically moody French art-house aesthetic provided by legendary screen goddess Jeanne Moreau. This scene is from the 1958 crime thriller movie Ascenseur Pour L’échafaud (Elevator To The Gallows), directed by Louis Malle. The soundtrack was recorded in one night, and improvised by Davis and four other musicians while they watched the relevant scenes from the film. Jazz critic Phil Johnson described it as “the loneliest trumpet sound you will ever hear, and the model for sad-core music ever since”.
