Format: LP / 12" / 33rpm / HI FI
Label: FRESH SOUND RECORDS
Catalogue Reference: FSR33-101 LP
Bar code (not printed): 8427328489010
Recording Year: 1957
Country of Pressing: Spain
Comments: DeLuxe Double LP Gatefold release
Sealed New Copy
Cover Grade: MINT
Vinyl Grade: MINT
The recording of this historic concert is presented in its entirety for the first time in this edition. The remastered original tapes have been used to produce this double LP, ensuring excellent sound quality.
With little publicity and only one star arrived from America, Miles Davis, Bruno Coquatrix, owner and manager of the Olympia, accomplished an impressive feat by presenting a sold-out concert on Saturday, November 30, 1957, at 6 p.m. André Hodeir in Jazz Hot had written, "This concert by Miles Davis was one of the most beautiful jazz concerts we have ever heard in Paris. Brilliantly supported by Kenny Clarke, René Urtreger, Pierre Michelot, and Barney Wilen, the great trumpeter gave the best of himself in many passages."
The producer and owner of this recording was the late jazz promoter Marcel Romano, who brought Miles Davis to Paris. After more than 60 years in storage, Romano’s nephew and heir discovered the tapes and sold them to Fresh Sound Records for a commercial release.
The music on this album is a magnificent testament to Miles Davis’ engaging and captivating style, showcasing his unrivaled ability to push his peers beyond their limits and share his boundless creativity and inspiration with them, leaving an indelible mark on our hearts and minds.
—Jordi Pujol
Press reviews
"On November 30, 1957, four days before trumpeter Miles Davis began recording the soundtrack to the French movie Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud, he performed at L'Olympia theater in Paris. He was backed by the Rene Utreger Quartet, featuring Barney Wilen (ts), Rene Urtreger (p), Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d) —the same musicians who would accompany him on the soundtrack.
Now, for the first time, we have the entire performance in sterling 24-bit remastered audio, thanks to Jordi Pujol and his Fresh Sound label. While parts of the concert were previously released on gritty bootlegs and a private recording by Urtreger, this release marks the first high-quality commercial issuing of the music.
The quintet is remarkable for its exceptional individual players. Wilen was a superb modern tenor saxophonist, Michelot was a solid bassist and Clarke was a superstar expatriate and a founding father of bebop. Most interesting, the quartet behind Davis didn't try to emulate the sound of his working group with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, though Wilen and Coltrane did share a similar dry tone.
In addition, Davis sounds at ease and playing as beautifully as he would on the movie soundtrack days later. In part, I would attribute this to Paris and his long-running love affair with the city and French audiences' love affair with him.
But Davis' passion for Paris ran a little deeper. Nearly all of his trips there included an affair. In 1949, he was with actress-singer Juliette Gréco. In 1956, he formed a romantic attachment with Urtreger's sister, Jeanne De Mirbeck. And a year later, around the time of this recording, he had begun an affair with Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud's leading actress, Jeanne Moreau.
During this trip, he also continued his affair with Urtréger's sister. “He was obsessed by sex, not by women,” she has said. “But when he was with me, he was with me.” During the tour, Davis wore her scarves on stage as keepsakes. Paris will do that to you.
The songs performed on the album are Solar, Four, What's New?, No Moe, Lady Bird, Tune Up, I'll Remember April, Bags' Groove, Round Midnight, Now's the Time, Walkin' and The Theme.
Another spectacular historical release of previously unisssued material that's first rate on every level. Kudos to Jordi and Fresh Sound."
—Marc Myers (September 19, 2023)
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