Explorations - rants & raves - craigslist (2024)

Teo Macero

"Explorations"

https://youtu.be/uSW-Y1O0Kto

For a good many years jazz musicians have been tentatively
approaching serious music, some to emulate, some to imitate,
some merely to study a structure within which their own talent
might develop. With few exceptions, the emulation and imitation
have produced only frenetic sterility. The study, on the other
hand has produced works which, in some cases, show promise
of further and starting development.
On the other side of the barber shop, the "serious" composers
have not done much better. Those compositions which have been
labeled "jazzy" have turned out to be "folksy" instead. Many
of them rich harmonically and melodically, they have generally
been burdened with a jazz conception that dates back to 1920.
But attempts at cross-pollination continue. The hybrid, they
say, is just around a not too square corner. And the reason for
this new flush of enthusiasm is that a new and young crop
of "serious" composers are now serving hopefully as Burbanks.
Peggy Granville-Hicks, in the Autumn Bulletin of the ACA, cites
as one of those who, "in using jazz as their new material work
close to the tap root of what is virtually folk-material,
metropolitan folk-lore if you like, but
nonetheless, material that has been a direct expression almost
& collective, anonymous expression of the subsconscious rather
then the conscious factors in music. Thus the organisms they
evolve sound fuller of real life than does much of the contemporary
concert output, which feeds not on raw source materials,
but on techniques evolved from technicians, on all manner of
previous intellectual concepts vitality plus organization are
a new high, and the result is a mad and wonderful contribution
to the musical melting pot of America."
It would probably be unfair, and it would certainly be libelous
to label Teo Macero a "med contribution", but "wonderful" he
is, as this LP will show. Trained at Juilliard, Teo is one of the few
... composers who could be called a jazz musician. He's contributed
his warm-cool tenor to several jazz groups as
well as to a recent jazz concert. He gives more than a passing
example in this record of his familiarity with the elusive beat.
But composition is his main interest, and, particularly,
that composition which derives its vitality and improvisational quality
from jazz and its structuring from "serious" music. If we are to
accept the Grenville Hicks imagery, Macero's inventive mind
could be said to be both an ingredient in "the musical melting
pot of America", and an important, part of the flame which
serves as a catalyst.
Three general notations may be made about what the listener
is to hear. The first is that some of the compositions offer great
freedom to the individual musicians. But always, to preserve
and ensure the desired whole, this freedom is within a given
structure. The second notation is similarly concerned with improvisation.
None of the solos are in the traditional style of jazz
but, rather, they are deliberately fitted to the compositional style.
For example, the accordion is played with both the left and
right hand in a linear style. Thirdly, the musicians assembled for
the Explorations show, through their adaptability to the new concept,
the freshness and profundity of skill that has brought them
to their present high stature.
Teo is an original tune which is concerned with the vagaries
of rhythm. Here at times different meters are inserted, from
four to three and back to four beats to the measure. The use
of polytonality furthers this effect.
April is skillfully remembered though the harmonic structure
has been changed, counterpoint employed and free rhythmic
patterns played on the strings of the piano. Note, too, the structure
of the last section which is builded through the use of the
first sixteen bars of the tune superimposed on the middle section,
the use of a 12-tone row and the application of both
diminution and augmentation of the tune itself.
Accordionist Lanny Di Jay arranged Yesterdays. Some of April's
techniques are used here but, in addition, the middle section
is composed of free and rhythmic improvisation on a set of twelve
tones. Emotional expression is created here by the superimposition
of two rhythmic patterns.
Mitzi is another original, again concerned with the development
of melodic and rhythmic ideas, using polychordal solos and shifting
of bar lines four-four to three-four in several places. All of
which, Teo quite blandly states, "is still quite traditional according
to present standards of jazz'.
How Low The Earth is more particularly a case of "serious"
techniques applied to jazz. Two 12-tone rows introduce
the composition and serve as a source for all the subsequent harmonies.
Here, too, is polytonal writing, the shifting of accents, the use
of tone clusters and a free improvisatory section. The last sound
in the piece is that rarest of animals, an interval of an octave
and a fifth played simultaneously on the tenor.
And to complete this set in non-harmonic writing is Explorations,
which is freely improvised from beginning to end with only
four notes given in each part. The piece is based on twelve
chromatic tones and is another variation of the composition which
precedes it. The three tenor and two alto lines are all played
by Teo.
One last thought is necessary before the listener sets his needle
to the mile of grooves hereon. Though strong men may stand
transfixed and women may swoon at the hearing, these Explorations
are worthy of creative listening. These are adventures in
the evolution of modern music.

-- BILL COSS
Assistant Editor, Metronome

TEO MACERO, Tenor, Alto
LANNY DI JAY, Accordion
CHARLES MINGUS, Bass
LOU LABELLA, Bass
ED SHAUGHNESSY, Drums

----

Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz record producer, saxophonist, and composer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and Dave Brubeck's Time Out, two of the best-selling and most influential jazz albums of all time. Macero was known for his innovative use of editing and tape manipulation unprecedented in jazz and proving influential on subsequent fusion, experimental rock, electronica, post-punk, no wave, and acid jazz.

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, and became a major contributor to the New York City avant-garde jazz scene. As a composer, Macero wrote in an atonal style, as well as in third stream, a synthesis of jazz and classical music. He performed live, and recorded several albums with Mingus and the other Workshop members over the next three years, including Jazzical Moods (in 1954) and Jazz Composers Workshop (in 1955).

During this time, Macero also recorded Explorations (DLP-6). While he had contributed compositions to other albums, this was the first full album of his own compositions, and Macero's first album as a leader. Macero plays tenor and alto saxophones on the album, and is joined by Orlando DiGirolamo on accordion, both Mingus and Lou Labella on basses, and Ed Shaughnessy on drums. Explorations was originally released in 1954 on Mingus' Debut Records, and was reissued on CD in 2006 on Fresh Sounds Records, with additional tracks.

The 1958 short experimental film Bridges-Go-Round by filmmaker Shirley Clarke featured two alternative soundtracks, one by Louis and Bebe Barron and one by Macero.

Composer and arranger
Macero's first projects for Columbia included one side of What's New?, an album of original music in the emerging Third Stream genre that was shared with Bob Prince as well as arrangements for the first Johnny Mathis album.

Macero continued to compose and arrange for a variety of artists during his time as a producer at Columbia, contributing tracks to (and still producing) several albums including Monk's Monk's Blues, and Something New, Something Blue, a collection of blues compositions and arrangements by Macero, Teddy Charles, Manny Albam, and Bill Russo. He contributed a track to (and produced) John Lewis and Gunther Schuller's Orchestra U.S.A. album, Sonorities, an album of third stream compositions, and he arranged music for easy listening pioneer, André Kostelanetz.

He composed, conducted, and produced numerous television and film soundtracks and scores. He scored the 1970 Muhammad Ali documentary, a.k.a. Cassius Clay, and produced soundtrack music for True Romance, Finding Forrester, and Martin Scorsese's The Blues.

Macero also composed for, conducted, and performed with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Salt Lake Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Juilliard School; and was commissioned by, and composed ballets for, the Joffrey Ballet Company, the Anna Sokolow Ballet Company, the London Ballet Company, the Juilliard Ballet Company, and the American Ballet Theatre.

Columbia Records producer
Macero found greater fame as a producer for Columbia Records. He joined in 1957, and produced hundreds of records while at the label, working with dozens of artists ... -- W.

-----/w

Also see:

https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/the-forgotten-man-teo-macero-and-bitches-brew/

Previously on the Great Instrumental Music program:

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rnr/d/alabamy-bound/7771335066.html

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rnr/d/the-best-of-ned-landry/7771267158.html

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rnr/d/the-swing-hearted/7771083056.html

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And there's even MORE More more Great Instrumental Music (for you to use to live your best life):

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/search/rnr?query=great%20instrumental%20music#search=1~list~0~0

Great Instrumental Music? Why post about G.I.M.? ... To share the JOY. Here's the story. Now, I do listen to songs with words sung by singers, sometimes. But I often find that words in song lyrics can be distracting. And most of the lyrics are dispensable; it's no great loss if you don't hear them. So, I prefer real musical instruments over electronic instruments, for the most part. Electronic keyboards and drum machines just don't sound good. They're like food out of a vending machine compared with real food made in a real kitchen. I think autotune and digital editing are more likely to make music worse than make it better. And so, therefore, I find the recordings of the LP era (basically the mid- to late-1900s) are just right. Great melodies, played by real musicians on real instruments, in real time and space. Music that actually existed as real sound, not just files in an electronic data base. Very little electronics or digital manipulation. I like to listen to them as I'm working (less distracting than singers singing songs), I like to listen to them in the evening when I'm relaxing. It's great. It's instrumental. It's music. Great Instrumental Music ... I invite you to share the joy, the pleasure, the rewards ... Won't you join me? (It's for everybody.)

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