25 Facts About Teo Macero

Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer.

Teo Macero was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years.

Teo Macero was known for his innovative use of editing and tape manipulation unprecedented in jazz and proving influential on subsequent fusion, experimental rock, electronica, post-punk, no wave, and acid jazz.

Teo Macero was born and raised in Glens Falls, New York, United States.

Teo Macero studied composition, and graduated from Juilliard in 1953 with Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

In 1953, Teo Macero co-founded Charles Mingus' Jazz Composers Workshop, and became a major contributor to the New York City avant-garde jazz scene.

Teo Macero performed live, and recorded several albums with Mingus and the other Workshop members over the next three years, including Jazzical Moods and Jazz Composers Workshop.

Teo Macero plays tenor and alto saxophones on the album, and is joined by Orlando DiGirolamo on accordion, both Mingus and Lou Labella on basses, and Ed Shaughnessy on drums.

Teo Macero continued to compose and arrange for a variety of artists during his time as a producer at Columbia, contributing tracks to several albums including Monk's Monk's Blues, and Something New, Something Blue, a collection of blues compositions and arrangements by Teo Macero, Teddy Charles, Manny Albam, and Bill Russo.

Teo Macero contributed a track to John Lewis and Gunther Schuller's Orchestra USA album, Sonorities, an album of third stream compositions, and he arranged music for easy listening pioneer, Andre Kostelanetz.

Teo Macero composed, conducted, and produced numerous television and film soundtracks and scores.

Teo Macero composed for, conducted, and performed with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Salt Lake Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Juilliard School; and was commissioned by, and composed ballets for, the Joffrey Ballet Company, the Anna Sokolow Ballet Company, the London Ballet Company, the Juilliard Ballet Company, and the American Ballet Theatre.

Teo Macero found greater fame as a producer for Columbia Records.

Teo Macero joined in 1957, and produced hundreds of records while at the label, working with dozens of artists including Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Mathis, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, Charlie Byrd, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Getz, and Les and Larry Elgart.

Teo Macero was responsible for signing Mingus, Monk, and Byrd to Columbia.

Additionally, Teo Macero produced over 100 albums of classical orchestral music for Columbia, including less conventional, contemporary pieces such as And God Created Great Whales by Alan Hovhaness, which required him to overlay recordings of humpbacked whale songs on to the orchestral track.

Teo Macero produced the seminal Dave Brubeck Quartet album Time Out, and Thelonious Monk's first Columbia recording, Monk's Dream, as well as his Underground.

Teo Macero produced Mingus' first Columbia album, Mingus Ah Um.

Teo Macero produced or co-produced most of Davis' Columbia catalog including the classics Sketches of Spain and Someday My Prince Will Come.

Behind the scenes, Miles and Teo Macero took the tapes of the In a Silent Way sessions and transformed some beautiful, folk-tinged, melody-driven sets into two exquisite, beguiling and otherworldly pieces of music.

Not only did Teo Macero have the balls to stand up to Miles on creative decisions, he had the right.

On that album, Ferguson can be heard thanking Teo Macero, noting that Teo Macero "is sitting out in the street in the mobile thing" monitoring the recording.

Eno describes being "fascinated" by Teo Macero's editing techniques and the "spatial" quality he added to the music.

In 1975, Teo Macero left Columbia and formed his own production company.

However, Teo Macero was outspoken in his opposition to the practice of adding back alternate takes that didn't appear on the original albums, or otherwise altering the original music, on the grounds that it corrupts the intentions of the musicians and the producer at the time the recording was made.