Davis flew to Paris at the end of November for this concert at the Olympia. The 6:00 pm
concert was sold out and the group was well received. André Hodeir wrote in
Jazz Hot, "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."
Michael Zwerin recalled this concert in Down Beat (March 10, 1966):
By curtain time Miles' whereabouts were still a mystery. They started playing “Walkin'”
and sounded fine, but no Miles Davis. Barney took a tenor solo, and as he was finished
backing away from the microphone Miles appeared from the wings, and arrived at the mike
without breaking his stride, just in time to start playing.
I don't know what to make of this, since Davis is clearly audible from the beginning
of "Walkin'." Were there perhaps two concerts on this date?
This concert was followed by some shows at the Salle Gaveau and a three-week residency at
the Club St. Germain. During this time Davis and the Urtreger Trio also played at the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (December 8 ) and the
Théâre Patria
in Brussels (December 20). The final concert at the Club St. Germaine was apparently on
December 20.
While in Paris Davis agreed to collaborate with Louis Malle on the soundtrack for a new
film, and the quintet gathered in Le Poste Parisien Studio on December 4.
They also appeared in Jean-Christophe Averty's Au Claire de la Lune, filmed in
Buttes Chaumont Studio on December 7. More details
about the circumstances of Davis' time in Paris are included in a 2007 interview with
Jeanne de Mirbeck, René Urtreger's sister and Davis' companion during his 1956
European tour (Jazz Magazine, December 2007, pp. 20-21).
This music was originally broadcast on AFRs' One Night Stand, but I don't
know the date of the broadcast. The tunes issued on Carlyne and RLR are about
a semitone sharp.
Thanks to Bruno Leicht, Alexander Keth, and Jan Lohmann for help with this session.
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