Miles Davis - "Ascender pour l'Échafaud" 3 × Vinyl, LP, 10", Album, Deluxe Edition, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered (2018/1958 (Fontana)

According to my current bank statement, I'm broke, yet, I couldn't help myself purchasing this three-10" disk set of the Miles Davis' definition of perfection "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud."  The Louis Malle film is fantastic of course, but the soundtrack music is one of those series of perfect aural moments.  With incredible backing from French Jazz musicians Pierre Michelot, René Urtreger, Barney Wilen, and the great American drummer Kenny Clarke.   The mood is consistent, which has traces of sadness and reflection.  The ultimate 'Modal' sounding album, it reflects the sound of a moody sea or a sense of moisture on a Parisian pavement.  

I have at least four versions of this soundtrack album.  It is consistently reissued in various formats, but my favorite is the 10" record.   Last year, they released a 10" original version, but this package includes all the outtakes throughout three discs.  For the new listener, I would suggest this above package because it sounds phenomenal, and there is not a bad or wasted cut on this album, including the extra bonus cuts.   Economically you can find a more inexpensive version, but then again, why do you want a discount of vinyl greatness?  

The album works in the early morning as well as late in the evening.  It has a purity or a sense of place that is meditative, but not background music.  Choosing a favorite Miles album is almost pointless, due to his vast recorded history.  Although, on a very subjective level, this is my favorite Miles album.  It never fails in supplying me the food I need to move on, and although I don't feel it's a spiritual work, but perhaps more of a sexual experience.   Sensuality that is the forefront, and therefore the ultimate sound of lovemaking that enters the brain.  

Barney Wilen/Alain Goraguer - "Jazz & Cinema Vol. 1" CD, Remastered, France, 2000 (Gitanes Jazz Productions/Jazz in Paris)

It's no top secret that the Paris culture loves American Jazz.  Similar to American pop culture being in tuned to the British Invasion of the early 1960s.   Gitanes, the tobacco company that probably killed Serge Gainsbourg and many others, had the good taste to sponsor a series of classic French Jazz sessions, that are way out of print, yet, essential to the jazzier and French cultural maven.  I think I have the complete series.  The majority of the recordings are from the post-war years in Paris, from 1946 to 1959.  A lot of it is American and French musicians who made recordings for the French market.  A lot of American musicians, especially Black Americans, made a good living in Paris during those years.   Thanks to people like by beloved Boris Vian.

"Jazz & Cinema" comes to five separate CDs.  Their first volume is devoted to the soundtracks of "J'Irai Cracher Sur Vos Tombes" by Alain Goraguer (based on a Boris Vian/Vernon Sullivan novel) and Un Témoin Dans La Ville by Barney Wilen.  Both from 1959.   Both are great scores by these magnificent talented musicians.   Goraguer is of special interest to me, due that he had worked with Vian, Serge Gainsbourg, and made a pioneering electronic score for La Planète Sauvage.  The CD series is not expensive, and all come with great liner notes and images of the original release.  Their outer CD covers look like a tourist trap attraction but believe me, the sound is great and the talent/recordings are all magnificent. 

Miles Davis - "Asceseur Pour L'Échafaud" Vinyl 10" album, Limited Edition, Mono (Sam Records)

My favorite Miles Davis music.  Recorded in 1958, in Paris, with the great French musicians Pierre Michelot, René Urtreger, Barney Wilen, and the legendary American drummer Kenny Clarke.  This album has been re-released numerous times.  But I think Sam Records version is the best.  For one, they went back to the original analog tape to make this disc as well as the original negatives of the front and back cover.   Sam Records is a one-man operation, and he focuses on jazz that was recorded in France, mostly from the 1950s.  

Limited edition of 1,000 copies, is not the easiest find, but once you do, you'll love it.  For one, the sound is incredible.  The music for me is like if someone turned the lights off by a switch.  A mood changer that works like no other music.   A beautiful smokey aural experience. 

The other item of interest for me is that they have the original liner notes including the one by Boris Vian.   Long-time readers of my blog and my work know that I have an intense passion for Vian's writing and his social world.    It's a great reminder of his presence and importance in the French and American Jazz world. 

BARNEY WILEN: Un témoin dens la ville & Jazz sur seine (Doxy) 45 rpm, 12" Vinyl Record

Another in the great series for the label Doxy, of Jazz music, composed for French films.  Here we have a very young French sax player Barney Wilen, who became known internationally after working with Miles Davis, on his score for Ascenseur pour l'échafaud.  Un témoin dens la ville is a classic noir-like score to its film, which one can smell the alcohol from the streets of the right bank.   Well, it does have one of the great French stars, Lino Ventura (born in Italy I think, but still...) in a film I have never seen.  I must make note... but if it's anything like its soundtrack, it's a must.  Sadly, I don't know the other musicians on this recording, but this 1958 piece of wonder really reflects on what is on the above album cover.  The mood is tense, with moments of intense beauty.

Side two is Jazz sure seine, which is Wilen playing with various members of the Modern Jazz Quartet, such as vibe player Milt Jackson on piano and the great Kenny Clarke on drums. I'm not sure if this was originally made for a film track, but it clearly brings pictures in one's head.  The music is touched with a lightness that's superb.   This is a fantastic album that will melt your brain, and bring warmth to your soul.

Barney Wilen - Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions) CD Album

Jazz In Paris Series

Barney Wilen – Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions)

CD Album, France, 1958

Jazz in Paris, Universal Music (France)

The great French Tenor Sax player Barney Wilen backed by ¾ of The Modern Jazz Quartet. Instead of John Lewis, we have the great vibe player Milt Jackson on piano, which I think is unusual. Nevertheless a great band with a fantastic rhythm section of Kenny Clarke and Percy Heath. These recordings always bring out the romantic in me, because I imagine these guys playing in a Parisian nightclub with numerous beautiful woman dressed in black with their gangster boyfriends. Drinking whiskey and water, and very little dialogue. Well, I think the Universal Music label 'Jazz in Paris' feeds that image for us foreigners, who spend a great deal of time in front of the TV/Computer to watch French gangster films of the 1950's.

So Jazz sur Seine (original title is Jazz Sessions) is a beautiful snapshot of what I imagine was a perfect time when French Jazz musicians played with American greats. It's the meeting of these two cultures that somehow becomes one-of-a-kind expression of a love shared by the few. This particular album has songs by Wilen as well as by Django Reinhardt, Charles Trenet and Thelonious Monk.

The original Vinyl album (1958)

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers Avec Barney Wilen - "Lis Liaisons Dangereuses 1960"

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers Avec Barney Wilen – Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960

Vinyl LP, Stereo Japanese Pressing

Fontana

One of the last things Boris Vian did before his passing, was to appear in Roger Vadim's Les Dangereuses 1960. A great album with a fantastic soundtrack by Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers... I think. For some reason the film credits mentions Thelonous Monk doing the score, which as far as I know, is not the case. And also someone else has claimed that they did the score as well. So its a bit of a mystery to me, but on the other hand it sure sounds like Art Blakey.

The album by all means, is a classic. It really conveys to me the importance of Jazz in French films during the 1950s as well as the early '60s. One wonders why it stopped? Nevertheless this updated version of the Libertine classic is the gateway to the morals of the 1960s or at the very least one can hear the door opening to something forbidden. The music is very sexy, and like champagne it can go to one's head, and by next morning one knows you were hit by a small bomb behind the ear lobe.