Miles Davis: Ascenseur pour l’echafaud (LP, 10”-version, Sam Records)

Ascenseur pour l’echafaud wasn’t the first film to use a jazz soundtrack or to feature jazz musicians. Hollywood began making short films and features with some of the best jazz stars as soon as motion pictures with sound were invented. Duke Ellington had his own short film showcases beginning with the 1929 Black & Tan, many of which also used dancers, effects and strange camera angles. Louis Armstrong’s film career began in 1928 (although no print of his first film, titled Ex-Flame, seems to have survived)