Ted Taforo

Ted Taforo may not be a familiar name yet, but if you’ve ever heard the sax-driven closing to Spoon’s Hot Thoughts album entitled “Us”, then you have heard his work. Britt Daniel was quoted in an interview about working with Taforo, “I just listened to the saxophones, put some reverb on there, and it was unreal! It was unbelievable. Parts of it actually made me feel pretty emotional. We basically threw out most of what Ted played to, and then built up the track again with the saxophones as the starting point."

The Los Angeles-based musician, who is also a two-time recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, is known for his versatility, unique compositions, and powerful saxophone sound. He first attended the Eastman School of Music where he studied jazz and saxophone. It wasn’t until he arrived at CalArts in 2012, that he started fusing that background with other genres such as Javanese gamelan music and the flourishing beat scene coming out of Los Angeles. Taking courses in Ableton while discovering keyboards such as the Casio MT 100, Ted began making beats and producing music with an electronic sound palette.