Five-Star Collection & Jazz For The Screen ★ Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Jazz Track

The 1958 Jazz Track album compilation is made up of two unrelated studio sessions. The first side is devoted to ten songs composed by Miles Davis for the soundtrack to the French film "L'Ascenseuer Pour l'Echafaud", with pianist René Urtreger, tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen, bassist Pierre Michelot, and drummer Kenny Clarke joining the trumpeter. Unfortunately, the music isn't particularly memorable, in spite of the best efforts of the musicians. The slower numbers seem rather sterile; while even the fast pace of "Sur l'Autoroute", featuring the leader's muted horn, leaves little in the way of a lasting impression.

The second side represents only a portion of the May 26, 1958, studio session with Bill Evans, John Coltrane, and Cannonball Adderley that has since been reissued in full on CD. The softly stated treatment of "On Green Dolphin Street", with Davis' muted trumpet, Evans' impeccable accompaniment, and Jimmy Cobb's tasteful brushwork is masterful, though Adderley and Coltrane quickly shatter that mood following their respective entrances. The waltz-time treatment of "Fran Dance" (Davis' recasting of "Put Your Little Foot Right Out") is fine, though the clear highlight of the record is the gorgeous arrangement of "Stella by Starlight," which Adderley sits out. This album is now a mere historical footnote since more complete editions of both sessions have been reissued.

A strange anomaly in the Miles Davis catalogue is this half-and-half LP released by Columbia in 1959. Jazz Track got its name in part from side A, which constituted much of the soundtrack music he created with a Parisian quintet in December 1957 for Louis Malle's first feature film, Ascenseur pour l’echafaud (released in the U.S. initially as Frantic, and later as Elevator to the Gallows.) With not enough music to fill more than one side of an LP, Columbia picked three tracks for the B-side from a remarkable Miles session from midsummer 1958—remarkable for featuring the Bill Evans-Cannoball Adderley-John Coltrane lineup proving their mettle on three tracks: "Green Dolphin Street", "Fran-Dance", and "Stella by Starlight". (As Kind of Blue fit into a modal concept, it can be argued these three performances are the best example of what Miles' famous 1958 sextet was capable of with more standard repertoire in the studio).

Jazz Track was released just a few months after Kind of Blue and before Sketches of Spain, and was unfairly overshadowed by the immediate popularity of each, and the fact that both were more cohesively thematic. In combining sessions conceived for different purposes and with different lineups, Jazz Track as an album was neither fish nor fowl. As well, that the music from Elevator to the Gallows—now acknowledged as a groundbreaking effort by both jazz and cinema historians—was first released in the US so perfunctorily is due as much to the film's limited potential in the American market, as it is to the mostly modal music being undervalued. And yet—without the modal tryout that yielded Elevator to the Gallows soundtrack, no Kind of Blue. One opened the door to the other. *milesdavis.com*

The recording [side 1] was made at night in a Paris radio studio and the atmosphere was very relaxed. The musicians watched the principal scenes of the film and improvised as they watched. It is important to stress the improvisatory nature of the music as it is most unusual to allow any degree of freedom to musicians recording a score where it is so essential to attain perfect synchronisation.(...)

The other side of this LP finds Davis with a group in more orthodox vein. Many American listeners have been impressed by the strong potential for individual development in tenor saxist John Coltrane's playing during the past couple of years and will be particularly interested in his solos on this session.

Bill Evans is another comparative newcomer whose piano work has attracted the attention of both fans and critics, and few other young musicians will be watched so attentively in the next year to see whether the promise will be fulfilled. Julian "Cannonball" Adderley is by now an established star in his own right and his many fans will not be disappointed by his work on this record.(...)

Davis' courage in sticking to his own path at a time when it was fashionable to follow whoever was currently in vogue has paid off both in public acclaim and in individual development. Yet it is unlikely that he will be satisfied with his work for any great length of time as he is an artist who is always modest about his playing. Most critics and

enthusiasts do not share Davis' slight evaluation of so much of his own work, for to them the records he has been making are amongst some of the finest of the past few years. Perhaps we may hope that this score may lead more film producers to re-evaluate the inherent possibilities in utilizing jazz in this medium.  *Albert McCarthy (from the liner notes)* 

An absolutely fascinating release, this album offers Miles with a group in France, doing the score to a French motion picture. It was improvised in a dark studio while the picture was shown. Side two is the product of a session recorded in New York. It features Davis' quintet of the period right after Jimmy Cobb replaced Philly Joe Jones, when Bill Evans was still a member of the group.

Both sides concentrate on the lyricism that pervades the best Davis’ playing, even though the motion picture music is overladen with that ugly sound of pain that comes through in his work with almost equal frequency. The French group is completely dominated by Miles, though Wilen manages to play very well in his brief solos and Klook’s brushes are delightful. But it is Miles one remembers from these tracks; he conveys the concentrated beauty and stark drama of, say, Billie Holiday. His sadness is devastating here, just as his lyricism is exquisite and the pain of his beauty almost insupportable. Some of the very best, if not the best, Miles solos are contained on the Elevator side of the LP.

The New York date is top-notch Davis of recent vintage. The other horns stand on an equal basis with the leader, and the rhythm section brings to the totality of the sound an element of vitality that is lacking in the French session. Adderley’s robust and lusty wailing is in sharp contrast to Miles’ lyric intensity (of the sort he got on Bye, Bye, Blackbird) and Coltrane’s dynamic thrusts.

Jimmy Cobb, who has, I'm sure, surprised everybody by the major league manner in which he took over a most difficult chair, was new in the band at this time and did not sound as free and as natural as he came to sound later. However, there is no group in modern jazz that can stand comparison with any of the various Miles Davis groups of the past three or four years. This LP is unquestionably top priority.

The notes, by the way, are by that well-known propagandist for Miles Davis and modern jazz, Albert McCarthy of the Old Bakehouse, Back Road East, St. Ives, Cornwall, England.

*Ralph J. Gleason, Down Beat, December 10, 1959 [5 stars])*

Off Note:

The track "Fran-Dance" is also known by its original name "Put Your Little Foot Right Out". It is a traditional folk melody that Miles Davis took and adapted to the language of modern jazz. When it was included for the first time on the album Jazz Track, it was renamed "Fran-Dance" as a dedication and love letter to his then partner (and future wife), dancer Frances Taylor.

From "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud"

1 - Générique

(Miles Davis)

2 - L'assassinat De Carala

(Miles Davis)

3 - Sur L'autoroute

(Miles Davis)

4 - Julien Dans l'ascenseur

(Miles Davis)

5 - Florence Sur Les Champs-Elysées

(Miles Davis)

6 - Diner Au Motel

(Miles Davis)

7 - Evasion De Julien

(Miles Davis)

8 - Visite Du Vigile

(Miles Davis)

9 - Au Bar Du Petit Bac

(Miles Davis)

10 - Chez Le Phonographe Du Motel

(Miles Davis)

✳

11 - On Green Dolphin Street

(N. Washington, B. Kaper)

12 - Fran-Dance (a.k.a. Put Your Little Foot Right Out)

(L. Spier)

13 - Stella By Starlight 04:51

(N. Washington, V. Young)

#1 to #10:

From Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

(Side 1)

Miles Davis (trumpet), Barney Wilen (tenor sax),

René Urtreger (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums).

Recorded in Paris, December 4 and 5, 1957

#11, #12, #13:

(Side 2)

Miles Davis (trumpet), Julian "Cannonball" Adderley(alto sax), John Coltrane (tenor sax),

Bill Evans (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums).

Recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York City, May 26, 1958