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Teo Macero, Man Behind Electric Miles and More: RIP

Teo Macero, a saxophonist, composer, and record producer who helped craft many of Miles Davis' late-1960s and early-1970s electric-jazz records, has passed away at the age of 82. Though he was best-known for the meticulous editing work that he did on Davis LPs such as Bitches Brew, Macero was an interesting musician himself-check out his album Teo Macero with the Prestige Jazz Quartet, as well as a CD that writer Joe Milazzo hipped me to years ago, The Best of Teo Macero, which is full of meaty mid-century Third Stream jazz-in Macero's case here, a very cool chamber/orchestral kind of music that's most assuredly not easy listening. (There's even some downright eerie accordion action going on.) If you're at all into a progressive 1950s Jazz Workshop sound, or what a friend of mine has termed the early avant-garde, then these Macero records would wrap themselves nicely around your ears. He won't be remembered for them nearly as much as he will be for his work with Davis (he was also the producer on Dave Brubeck's monolithic jazz LP Time Out), but here's hoping a few jazz jocks around the world dig these albums out in the coming days.

Over at the jazz discussion board Organissimo, writer Chris Albertson has noted a YouTube interview clip in which Macero discusses his editing collaborations with Miles:

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