Jazz Workshops: Charles Mingus and John Carisi

“The Jazz Workshops Part 2″ is another in an ongoing series of occasional Night Lights episodes about progressive/collective jazz recordings in the 1950s. This program features music from Charles Mingus’ 1954 Savoy LP The Jazz Composers Workshop, a recording that includes musicians such as clarinetist and alto saxophonist John LaPorta and tenor saxophonist Teo Macero, who, in addition to his own intriguing 1950s studio efforts, would go on to edit and help assemble much of the electronic jazz that Miles Davis recorded between 1968 and 1975. We’ll also hear trumpeter John Carisi’s 1956 session for RCA’s Jazz Workshop series, which went unreleased until 1988, when it came out on a CD called The Arrangers. Carisi’s composition “Israel” was featured on The Birth of the Cool; we’ll hear his own version of it, as well as the original recording of his tune “Springsville,” which would appear a year later on Davis’ Miles Ahead album. Another program highlights the jazz-workshop albums of George Russell and Hal McKusick.

Tags: Charles Mingus, jazz workshops, John Carisi, Teo Macero