On December 4, 1957, at Le Poste Parisien studio in Paris, Miles Davis recorded what would become the score for ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. Released under the film’s French title, ASCENSEUR POUR L’ÉCHAFAUD, the soundtrack is considered a pivotal recording in Davis’s career. Presented here are interviews and documentary footage chronicling the session.
Pianist René Urtreger, the only musician from the soundtrack session for ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS still living, was interviewed in 2005 for the film’s French DVD release.
In 2006, jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis and critic Gary Giddins discuss the iconic Miles Davis and the critical time in his career when the score for ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS was recorded.
Directed by Louis Malle • 1954 • France
In 1954, Louis Malle was a film student at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris, where he shot this rarely seen short, CRAZEOLOGIE. Inspired by the theater of the absurd of such playwrights as Samuel Beckett and Eugène Iones...
