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Teo Macero Died

Added on 16 March 2008 at 13:23:36, by Charley

Teo Macero Died

I would like everyone to know that a great man has died. Of course, it’s not going to work because we’re on my website here and not everyone – by a longshot – is reading it. But I try.
The man we are considering is – was – Teo Macero. I can hear a tiny but worldwide chorus of “Who’s that?”
Teo Macero was a record producer, primarily for the purposes of posterity, of Miles Davis records from Kind of Blue in 1959 through to 1983. This was a ride that lasted well into the ground-breaking Davis albums of the late 60s and 70s. Teo Macero had a big hand in making them groundbreaking.
He took Miles’ tapes, often long, spontaneous studio jams, and edited them into something much more coherent. Miles at first balked at someone changing the music around after it was recorded, but he quickly saw the value - after all, Miles realised the value of collaboration, from Gil Evans in the early 50s to Marcus Miller in the late 80s, and so encouraged Macero’s role. It was a huge step into the future.
Macero was a musician, a jazz saxophonist, an a longtime friend of Edgar Varese (frequently a house guest) and also worked with Charles Mingus. Macero’s mind was open, open to experimentation, to different strategies. This alone means a lot. What if Miles had had to constantly fight his producer in order to keep changing, to make unprecedented music? Macero was Miles’ George Martin.
Prior to Macero’s manipulations, recorded jazz had been entirely live bands captured on tape. He extended jazz to the recording process, brought it into the future early, while the future was still just that. Now the process is commonplace and the tools are digital rather than analog tape and a razor. Never the less, we are living in Teo Macero’s future.

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