Teo Macero

Producer, composer, and tenor saxophonist Teo Macero attended Julliard and became a member of Charles Mingus’s Jazz Composers’ Workshop in the early 1950s. Macero was influenced by classical and avant-garde ideas, and these elements characterized his playing style. He began recording as a leader in ’53, and cut a handful of dates in the ensuing decades until his death in 2008. Yet Macero’s true achievements were as a producer, and he did his most important work for Columbia from the late ‘50s on, producing classics like Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and Dave Brubeck’s Time Out.