Teo Macero

Teo Macero gained his greatest renown as a prolific jazz producer for Columbia between 1957 and the late 1980s, above all through his extensive work on Miles Davis releases. At the same time he appeared now and then as a tenor saxophonist on exploratory sessions. Following naval service he settled in New York in 1948 and studied at Juilliard, completing his degree in 1953. That same year he joined Charles Mingus’ Jazz Composers Workshop, participating in several Mingus recordings from 1953 through 1955. He also recorded with Teddy Charles in 1956 and led three albums under his own name for Debut, Columbia, and Prestige between 1953 and 1957. Macero’s austere tenor and baritone timbre together with his forward-looking note selection often aligned him more closely with contemporary classical idioms than with jazz. During the late 1950s he composed a number of atonal classical pieces, yet by that period his primary occupation had become full-time production. His appearances as a performer remained rare throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1983 he resumed playing to make a Charles Mingus tribute album for Palo Alto; two years later he contributed to a single track on a Doctor Jazz session he himself led. A Stash anthology later reissued several of his earlier saxophone performances. Beyond those earlier jazz associations he also collaborated with Geri Allen, Wallace Roney, the Lounge Lizards, Vernon Reid, and Simon and Garfunkel, for whom he produced the soundtrack to The Graduate, along with dozens of additional artists. Macero died at age 82 on February 19, 2008, at his residence in Riverhead, New York.