Meco

Best known for his disco take on the Stars Wars theme tune, jazz trombonist-cum-producer and arranger Meco Monardo started out as an army bandsman, playing with the West Point Army Band. Prior to the West Point gig Meco, a student from the Eastman School Of Music in Rochester, honed his playing skills alongside fellow alumni and future jazz stars Chuck Mangione and Ron Carter (of Miles Davis Quintet fame) in a three piece jazz combo. In the late 1960s Meco began to build a reputation as session player and arranger. During this period he became involved with arranging and performing music for TV commercials and is credited for the arrangement on Tommy James' 1969 hit Crystal Blue Persuasion. In 1974 Meco had his breakthrough when he co-produced Gloria Gaynor's seminal disco hit Never Can Say Goodbye followed up by the Carol Douglas hit Doctor's Orders. Buoyed with confidence from his disco success Meco approached Cassablanca Records with a view to re-working some of the music from George Lucas' movie Stars Wars and was given the green light by Casablanca boss Neil Bogart to record the album Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk. The hits soon followed and Meco did similar treatments to music from The Wizard Of Oz and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. He retired from music in 1985 and became a commodities broker in Florida.

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