Teo Macero

[thewho rocks <leb905@yahoo.com>]

For anybody who didn't bother with the whole Macero interview, here's
an excerpt that ties in with last week-end's discussion.  Looks like
Macero is 76, from the jazz tradition, and he thinks music is stalled
because the big record labels reject creativity in favor of
commercialism.  (You'd gather that might be why he's putting things out
on his own label.)  There's been some comment that narrow marketing
focus has choked off experimentation on radio and TV, as well.  

I don't know if Macero qualifies as a "founding genius," but back in
the forties and fifties was a very exciting time to be working in the
music business.  He mentions here how he "borrows" from the classical
tradition.  He's caught the transition from jazz to fusion, and it
looks like he's still chugging away with some pretty creative stuff.

LB



>So I mean, I've delved in all kinds of things. And I can take an
element from -- I just did this piece from Shastokovich. He's one of my
favorite composers because he could orchestrate, he could develop a
thematic idea. I took the harmonic structure of his section and I wrote
another piece and I call it "Shasty". And it's rather unusual, rather
interesting. I mean, and you hear the juxtaposition like he would have
done, but only done in a jazz, swing format. So there is that cross
pollination going on all the time. I mean we borrowed from them, they
borrowed from us. But there's not enough things that really are
happening. To me it seems like everything is standing still at the
moment. Spinning our wheels because the record companies don't want to
hear it. They want something that's going to make them a lot of money,
and you a lot of money. But I think experimentation is the greatest way
of making money. It's like investing in the stock market. You got to be
experimental. You got to be holding to something, holding to the
basics. And I think this is what's wrong with a lot of music today. It
just sort of gets up there and just sort of stops. I don't like that. 

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