Johnny Carisi

• Born: February 23, 1922, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
• Died: October 03, 1992, NY
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Composer, Arranger, Trumpet

Biography

Johnny Carisi is destined to be chiefly remembered for composing "Israel," a complex blues that was recorded by Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool nonet. Otherwise his career was primarily spent in obscurity. Carisi, who was mostly self-taught on trumpet, played early on with little-known groups although he had a stint in 1943 with Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. Starting in the mid-40's, Carisi's writing was sophisticated and advanced enough for him to contribute arrangements to the books of Ray McKinley, Charlie Barnet and Claude Thornhill. Never a major soloist, Carisi played trumpet with Claude Thornhill's Orchestra a bit during 1949-50. Although he worked fairly steadily as a writer, Johnny Carisi recorded only a few albums under his own name. He had an opportunity to remake "Israel" in 1956 for a Bluebird set not released until the CD era, and he utilized a "Guitar Choir" in an unusual reworking of the music from Showboat (playing trumpet on "Nobody Else But Me"). In 1961 Carisi shared an Impulse Lp (Into The Hot) with Cecil Taylor and in 1968 he wrote the arrangements for trumpeter Marvin Stamm's Machinations album. Otherwise Johnny Carisi wrote for the studios, was involved part-time with classical music and was a music educator. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide