Description
Rarely has a soundtrack been so decisive. Nearly seventy years on, beyond the myth, this taut, feverish recording, imbued with extreme dramatic tension, remains one of the Miles finest records. The basic outline remains: Jean-Paul Rappeneau suggested to Malle asking Miles Davis to create the film’s soundtrack who agreed to record the music after attending a private screening.
Davis was performing at the Club Saint-Germain in Paris in November 1957 and on December 4, he brought his four sidemen to the recording studio without having had them prepare anything. Davis only gave the musicians a few rudimentary harmonic sequences he had assembled in his hotel room, and, once the plot was explained, the band improvised without any precomposed theme, while edited loops of the musically relevant film sequences were projected in the background.
Bassist Pierre Michelot recalled in 1988 that Miles just asked us to play two chords, D minor and C7, 4 bars of each, ad lib. Typically, Miles planned very little but know exactly what he wanted. Franois Leterrier, the films Second Assistant Director picks up the story: The session started at around ten oclock and went on until dawn. The screen in the auditorium was showing the scenes for which Miles had devised some harmonies, and they were edited into a loop. And thats what makes this music unique: it was entirely improvised in conditions that went back to the days of silent films, while watching frames shot in black and white by cinematographer Henri Deca: tracking shots of Jeanne Moreau wandering down the Champs-Elyses at night, passing in front of lit window displays or going into bars, while looking for her lover/murderer alias Maurice Ronet
This beautiful re-issue of the original recording is pressed on 180g vinyl, and packaged in a jacket with Boris Vians original liner notes and Jean-Pierre Leloirs iconic studio photo of Miles and Jeanne Moreau.
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