R.I.P. Teo Macero, the George Martin of Jazz

Teo Macero, who passed away this week at the age of 82, was the George Martin of jazz, a man who stood at the nexus of accessibility and experimentation. As in-house producer at Columbia, he was behind the board for some of the top-selling, most highly regarded "classic" jazz records of all time: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, Thelonius Monk's Straight, No Chaser and Dave Brubeck’s Time Out.
Macero's greatest impact as producer however was working with Miles during his bold, daring, super-groovy foray into jazz-rock.

In act of heresy to old-guard jazz fans, Davis and Macero abandoned two of the most closely held tenets of jazz: classical instruments and live improvisation. Inspired by funk soul brothers Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, Miles & Teo created a new form of jazz using so-called “rock” instruments like the electric guitar & bass, the Fender Rhodes electric piano and a wah-wah pedal for his trumpet. Macero would record hours and hours of Davis and his brilliant bandmates jamming around various themes and splice them together later with a razor blade.

This music, at times chaotic and dense, other times hauntingly peaceful, channeled the late 60s experience - Vietnam, civil rights, flower power - while still keeping its blues roots firmly intact. These records - In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, On the Corner to name a few - still sound avant-garde today. And their influence is clearly heard in the work of Radiohead, Brian Eno's work with Talking Heads and U2, Public Enemy and all that trance-techno house bullshit you hear in lounges.

Perhaps the greatest Miles/Macero cut-and-paste masterpiece is “Right Off,” the 26-minute Side A from his album A Tribute to Jack Johnson.

This 1971 soundtrack to a film about the white-women-loving depression-era boxer Jack Johnson, (not the super-mellow, Curious George-loving Hawaiian singer-surfer) is a bluesy swinging cinemascape of black pride & power. Unlike much of the so-called jazz-rock fusion, "Right Off" is very much jazz and rock. There is no better music to listen to on a long car drive or iPod-accompanied stroll through the city. Best of all, you can get it on iTunes for a mere 99 cents. RIP and TCB, Teo.

mp3: Miles Davis, "John McLaughlin," Bitches Brew

YouTube: Miles Davis & John Coltrane, "So What," 1958


YouTube: Dave Brubeck, "Time Out," 1961


YouTube: Miles Davis, "Bitches Brew," (Part 1 of 6), 1970


YouTube: Teo Macero Talks About Working With Miles Davis