Legendary jazz producer Teo Macero died yesterday. He was 82.

Teo worked with - amongst others - Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Theolonious Monk, Johnny Mathis, and Robert Palmer, but it's his work with Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus and especially Miles Davis that marks him out as one of the greatest music producers of all time.

He helmed Brubeck's Take Five, which went on to become the biggest selling jazz album of the time. He managed to harness and discipline Charles Mingus's extraordinary talent and focus it into making what is arguably his first great album, Ah-Um.

And as for his work with Miles Davis - where do you start? With Kind of Blue (Miles' biggest selling album, and one of the cornerstones of jazz), or everything Miles recorded from 1964 to 1975?

From 1968 onwards, Macero was as much a part of Miles's albums as the extraordinary troupe of musicians he played with. Macero edited down hours of sessions to create In A Silent Way (just listen to the "Sessions" box set to hear the mountain of music he honed down to that single pearl of an album), Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, On The Corner, Get Up With It, Big Fun and those extraordinary live albums from the period, including the seminal live album. Miles may have provided the radical, genre-bending music, but it was Macero who shaped it in the studio. He not only had a sympathetic ear for the new music Miles was cooking up, but he believed in the Dark Magus like no other.

A great man who did great things.
[Edited 2/23/08 7:59am]

Shapeshifter said:

Wow.....what an extraordinary life...RIP...

Although he worked with many artists including Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, Mahalia Jackson and Leonard Bernstein, most know him for his cutting edge collaborations with Miles Davis.

Before the digital age of samplers and Pro Tools rigs, the most radical manipulation of recorded sound was a one-shot precision analog surgery using tape, a splicing block and a razor blade.

I know most won't read it ("too many words"), but for those who still believe that R.I.F. there's an interview Teo Macero gave in 1997 where he discusses his influences, how some of the projects were accomplished, artists he worked with and contemporary music.

Interview: http://www.furious.com/pe...acero.html


A video interview...



...discussing his work with Miles Davis.


One of his first recordings (if not the first) as a player/composer done in 1955...



... an adventerous record done through the Jazz Composers Workshop (an organization he co-founded with Charles Mingus) was reissued a couple of years ago.





tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Shapeshifter said:

Sad news.

Their personal relationship had its ups and downs (Miles cut off contact with him for some time after Teo released the 'Quiet Nights' album in 1964 IIRC without his permission - Miles considered the tapes for this to be no more than 'works in progress' and was very angry. Something similar happened later with the 'Big Fun' compilation - also released without Miles's cooperation/ input/ permission). Miles seems to have had little interest or control over what actually came out on his Teo produced albums, especially in the '70s, it seems. But he came from an era where most musicians (Teo excepted) were not producers.

Consequently, I would say that Teo almost deserves joint credit on those 'electric' records, like Gil Evans gets on most of his Miles collaborations. From 1969 (at latest) to 1975, Teo was responsible for the structuring of the music pieces and the sequencing of the albums, as well as the mixing, effects and the general sound of those records.

There has been some criticism in more recent years that Teo, with his jazz background, failed to appreciate that having louder, more prominently mixed bass and drums on those 'electric' tracks would have assisted the funk, and given greater definition to what was often rather nebulous, 'searching' music; and I can see their point. But we have to remember that both Miles and Teo were operating on the 'cutting edge' of jazz-related music at that time.

But all that takes nothing away from the huge contribution Teo made to not just Miles' records, but also to those of many other great jazz artists.

[Edited 2/23/08 13:32pm]

theAudience said:

Thanks for the history lessons, ya'll. I do read all the words!

R.I.P.

Thanks, tA...and I did read all the words ....very interesting...what a loss.