Early work Teo Macero was born and raised in
Glens Falls, New York, United States. After serving in the
United States Navy, he moved to
New York City in 1948 to attend the
Juilliard School of Music. He studied composition, and graduated from Juilliard in 1953 with
Bachelor's and
Master's degrees. In 1953, Macero co-founded
Charles Mingus' Jazz Composers Workshop, Taking his cue from Tingen, Nick Southall described the impact of Macero's work on
In a Silent Way in a 2003
Stylus Magazine article: Behind the scenes, Miles and Teo 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. Using techniques that pre-dated the proliferation of tape loops, cut-ups, edits and sequencing in rock, pop, hip hop and dance music, Miles and Teo took apart the original recording and reassembled them outside of any traditional or accepted jazz structure or melodic framework. This idea of taking jazz away from its birth, genesis and flowering as a live art and into the studio would soon become standard practice, but in 1969 it was groundbreaking. Some listeners and critics have complained that Macero overproduced Davis' recordings, and cut too much. But after hearing the unedited tapes from the
In a Silent Way sessions, jazz critic John Ballon wrote that the original editing and production "attests to the producing genius of Teo Macero." Ballon continues: It took a force like Teo to splice together a cohesive album out of so many inspired pieces. Not only did Teo have the balls to stand up to Miles on creative decisions, he had the right. And Miles knew it. And while his ego rebelled against any producer messing with his music, Miles knew that incredibly great records were borne out of the conflict and compromise of his relationship with Teo. On Davis' 1970 release
Bitches Brew, Macero continued to expand his innovative practices, and "
Bitches Brew not only became a controversial classic of musical innovation, it also became renowned for its pioneering use of studio technology." Some of the controversy at the time also stemmed from the use of the word
bitches in the title. Macero recalls that when Davis told him that he wanted to call it
Bitches Brew, "I thought he was kidding." The album became the best-selling jazz album of its time, selling 500,000 copies by 1976, when most successful jazz albums sold less than 30,000 copies. Macero produced
M.F. Horn 3 for Maynard Ferguson in 1973 as well as Ferguson's next album in 1974, ''
M.F. Horn 4&5: Live At Jimmy's. On that album, Ferguson can be heard thanking Macero, noting that Macero "is sitting out in the street in the mobile thing" monitoring the recording. The album includes the piece Teonova'' in Macero's honor. Macero's innovative techniques were inspired partially by his association with avant-garde composer
Edgard Varèse, and they continue to impact the way musicians, producers, and
remixers work in the studio today.
Brian Eno, a producer who has worked extensively with
U2 and
Talking Heads, among others, talked about Macero's influence on him in a 1996 interview with
jazzthetik magazine. Eno describes being "fascinated" by Macero's editing techniques and the "spatial" quality he added to the music. "He did something that was extremely modern." In 1975, Macero left Columbia and formed his own production company. However, he continued to work with Davis until 1983 and continued to produce records for Columbia throughout his career.
Other work After his tenure at Columbia, Macero continued as a player and producer on other projects, working with Brubeck, Tony Bennett,
Herbie Hancock,
Asha Puthli,
Michel Legrand,
Wallace Roney,
Shirley MacLaine,
Vernon Reid,
Robert Palmer, and
DJ Logic. In the 1970s and 1980s, Macero released a handful of his own albums, including
Time Plus Seven,
Impressions of Charles Mingus, and
Acoustical Suspension, before founding his own label, Teorecords, in 1999. Subsequently, he released over a dozen albums of original compositions, and continued to produce reissues of Miles Davis and other artists for various record companies. However, 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. "They put all the mistakes back in," said Macero. "Don't destroy the original record." A short film,
Teo, was filmed by producer/director
Daragh McCarthy and features Teo Macero's last recording session and extensive interviews.
Tributes Both
Miles Davis and
Thelonious Monk dedicated a song titled
Teo to Macero: Davis in the 1961 album
Someday My Prince Will Come, Monk in the 1964 album
Monk. The song
Teonova (Dedicated to Teo Macero), written by Pete Jackson, appears on the 1974
Maynard Ferguson album ''
M.F. Horn 4&5: Live At Jimmy's, produced by Macero. The Wayne Shorter composition Teo's Bag'' appears on Davis's 1979 album
Circle in the Round. ==Death==