Rene Urtreger

Miles Davis: Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud

Read "Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
May 27, 2026

A legend has grown up around the music Miles Davis created for Louis Malle's debut film Lift to the Scaffold (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud). The story goes that Davis arrived at the Paris studio having never seen the film. He watched the rushes once, then improvised as the footage rolled with his European quintet--René Urtreger on piano, Barney Wilen on tenor saxophone, Pierre Michelot on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. The music was recorded on the night of December 4 ...

Album Review

Miles Davis Quintet: In Concert At The Olympia, Paris 1957

Read "In Concert At The Olympia, Paris 1957" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 7, 2024

Another live Miles Davis recording. Well, once the studio outtakes have dried up, this is the only seam left to mine. Happily, with advances in sound technology, old radio broadcasts are increasingly being dusted down and treated to a little digital TLC. Since 1983, Fresh Sounds Records has been a leading light in reissues and archival releases (see Fresh Sound Records and the Legacy of Recorded Jazz), in addition to producing many hundreds of contemporary artists. This one from Jordi ...

Video / DVD

René Urtreger Plays Bud Powell

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 12, 2020

Bud Powell arguably had the most significant influence on jazz pianists of the post-war modernist era. You'd have an easier time making a list of those not influenced by Powell than compiling the names of those who fell under his bebop spell. Among the most accomplished of Powell's disciples (a group that includes Al Haig, Sonny Clark and Claude Williamson) is René Urtreger. Born in Paris in 1934, Urtreger began studying piano formally at age 4, taking private lessons before ...
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Recording

René Urtréger: Plays Bud Powell

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 27, 2012

Yesterday I posted on Claude Williamson and two albums he recorded for Capitol in 1954 and '55, making mention of his interpretations of several Bud Powell compositions. Today we swing way east to Paris, where René Urtréger recorded his own tributes to Powell seven months later in February 1955. The tracks appear on Urtréger's 10-inch album for the Barclay label entitled Joue Bud Powell ("Plays Bud Powell"). Before we dig in, a little big picture. Both Kenton Presents Claude Williamson ...
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