The Listening Room Event #10 - Miles Davis Centenary

The Event:

This year marks the centenary of Miles Davis (26th May) so we thought what better way to celebrate the great musician than sharing some classic Miles in the Listening Room.

Miles Davis created music across five decades, never standing still. To celebrate that spirit, this listening event focuses on two recordings that capture Miles at important moments in his career.

A Miles double: Ascenseur pour l'échafaud & Kind of Blue

We will host 16 of you on Thursday 2nd July at 6.30pm,  We will play Ascenseur pour l'échafaud first (25 mins), followed by Kind of Blue (45 mins). We will set the Listening Room up cafe style for this one so you can relax, have a drink and move around (if needed) whilst enjoying the music. 

The Music:

We begin with Ascenseur pour l'échafaud the film score for 'Elevator to the Gallows'. Seven decades on this record still remains one of the only jazz soundtracks which was entirely improvised. On the 4th of December, 1957, at 10pm, Davis and his new group of French musicians began recording. They drank for an hour, played for four and edited for two, leaving the studio at 5am the next day with a finished score for the entire film. 

It’s a remarkable session, and a significant one. You can hear Miles moving toward what would become modal jazz, laying the groundwork for what, just a couple of years later, would become the best-selling jazz record of all time, Kind of Blue. Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is being reissued on 22nd May 2026 to mark the centenary (premium archival reissue with original artwork in a deluxe gatefold).

From there, the natural next step is Kind of Blue. Recorded just under two years later, it finds Miles refining that same approach into something more open and spacious. Built on simple scales rather than complex chord changes, the music allows for a remarkable level of interaction between players, with standout contributions from John Coltrane and Bill Evans.

The result is a record that feels both effortless and deeply considered, and part of what has made it so enduring. The beauty of Kind of Blue is that you don’t need to know anything about jazz to be drawn into its atmosphere.

Together these two albums reveal the breadth and diversity of Miles’s talent and his evolution from loose improvisation to a more open, spacious sound that would go on to redefine jazz.

Tickets:

You can purchase a ticket bundle with either record (or both) or an event only ticket.

Event ticket prices are 50% off when bought with a record.