* Of course, Kind of Blue did not come from nowhere. Like the scientist Erez Lieberman Aiden, Miles Davis laid the foundations for his creative leaps by repeatedly moving between playing styles. He had trained at the Juilliard School, recorded European classical music, and played many types of jazz with various groups.

Just over a year before Kind of Blue was recorded, Miles went to Paris to visit the actress Juliette Gréco, an old flame. She introduced him to a young director, Louis Malle, and Malle seized the opportunity to persuade the trumpeter to write and perform the soundtrack to Malle’s first film, Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows). Miles rounded up an unfamiliar band of musicians and, in an overnight session, they watched the film while he led the group in improvised accompaniment.

Just as the unplayable piano was a productive obstacle for Keith Jarrett, accompanying Ascenseur may have been the challenge that allowed Miles Davis to make a stylistic leap. It’s a noir movie about two lovers who conspire in a murder. Miles had been working in the bebop style, fast and technically demanding and useless for providing the sonic background to stark, spare, dreamy scenes. Because the film’s scenes had their own timing and logic, Miles had to adapt, finding a fresh, sparse style in a session that lasted less than three hours. It was new territory for Miles Davis—and territory to which he would soon return in Kind of Blue.