Miles Davis 100! Julian Borkowski Plays Miles

Vancouver is celebrating the 100th birthday of Jazz icon Miles Davis this May with a series of events covering every era of this musical trailblazer. On May 26, Miles’ birthday, trumpet firebrand Julian Borkowski leads a sextet through one of Miles Davis’ first musical projects… music recorded in the late 40s and early 50’s that would eventually be known as the Birth of The Cool!

Julian Borkowski – Trumpet
Cam Henderson – Trombone
Conor Lum – Alto
Ben Signerson – Piano
David Caballero – Bass
Arvind Ramdas – Drums

About the Film: Elevator to the Gallows (1958, France, 91 min)

Twenty-four-year-old Louis Malle came out of the gate with this cool noir thriller about a perfect murder that goes horribly wrong. The crime is committed early on. Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) kills his boss in his office shortly before quitting time. But returning to the scene of the crime to retrieve an incriminating piece of evidence he gets stuck in the lift… As if that’s not enough, a couple of joyriders swipe his car. Meanwhile, his lover (Jeanne Moreau) is completely in the dark about all this and going frantic.

24-year-old Louis Malle came out of the gate with this cool noir about a perfect murder that goes horribly wrong. A man (Maurice Ronet) kills his boss in his office, only to get stuck in the lift… Meanwhile, his lover (Jeanne Moreau) is in the dark about all this and going frantic. It’s an ironic genre exercise but the textures are fresh: Henri Decae’s monochrome images of nocturnal Paris paired with the famous Miles Davis trumpet score, improvised over one night. It’s the birth of the nouvelle vague.

Elevator to the Gallows married a new kind of jazz to a new kind of cinema, and created something altogether sublime.

Tina Hassannia, Village Voice

As French crime thrillers go, this is about as good as it gets.

Walter V Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

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