John Carisi was an American composer, arranger, and trumpeter born on February 23, 1922, in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. He studied under classical composer Stefan Wolpe, and this training informed his distinctive approach to blending jazz improvisation with contemporary classical techniques. Carisi is best known for Israel, a minor blues composition recorded by Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool nonet in 1949 and featured on AllSolos. The piece, a polyphonic twelve-bar variation, became a jazz standard subsequently recorded by Bill Evans, the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, and many others. Carisi also composed Springsville, recorded by Davis on the Gil Evans-arranged Miles Ahead album. His broader catalog includes big band scores for Urbie Green, guitar ensemble works for Harry Galbraith, and sessions with Marvin Stamm, as well as chamber music and ballet compositions. He worked with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Charlie Barnet, and the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band. Carisi died on October 3, 1992, in New York.
