Joan Cartwright

Joan Renee Cartwright (born December 7, 1947, in Kew Gardens, New York) is a Jazz and Blues singer, composer, author and educator. She toured the United States, Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Ghana, Gambia, South Africa, the People's Republic of China and Japan. Known as "Diva JC", Her online radio show MUSICWOMAN TALK RADIO features women who compose and perform their own music and men who support them, and discussions about music.
In 2008, Cartwright initiated the AMAZING MUSICWOMEN ENSEMBLE, a group of female musicians that performs in concert, telling the history of jazz and blues singers and musicians Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Mary Lou Williams, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Melba Liston, Alice Coltrane, Marian McPartland, Peggy Lee, Nina Simone, Betty Carter and Joanne Brackeen.
The Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora published in 2008, by ABC Clio and includes Cartwright's entries about Women in Jazz and Blues.
Cartwright's book, In Pursuit Of a Melody, contains 40 original songs and lyrics to standard songs: "A Night in Tunisia" by Dizzy Gillespie, "Blue Bossa" by Kenny Dorham, "Tune Up" by Miles Davis and "Bessie's Blues" by John Coltrane.
Artist-in-Residence for the 2007 Pan African Bookfest in South Florida, she has lectured to over 7,000 children and college students, since 1997, in the U.S., Switzerland, Sicily, China and Japan: Women in Jazz and So, You Want to be a Singer?. Her workshops highlight the pitfalls and benefits of the music business.
The "Hip hop Mom of Atlanta", Joan performed "Jazz Meets Hip Hop" in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Italy, France and England. Joan performed with jazz and blues musicians Lou Donaldson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Dorothy Donegan, Philly Joe Jones, Shirley Scott, Milt Hinton and Freddie Hubbard, who recorded her composition Sweet Return on Atlantic Records, in 1983. She's worked with hundreds of musicians in the U.S., Europe and Asia, where she toured with Crazy English program, in Beijing, in 2006.
Cartwright founded WOMEN IN JAZZ SOUTH FLORIDA, INC., a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization that promotes women musicians locally, nationally and globally, through contacts, articles, interviews, newsletters, events, courses, clinics, workshops, lectures, research, history, archives, websites, film, audio and video recording, concerts, performances and recognition.
The AMAZING MUSICWOMEN Ensemble presents WOMEN IN JAZZ at libraries, cultural centers and schools. The ensemble performed in 2007-2008 at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Reference: Cartwright, Joan. A History of African-American Jazz and Blues. lulu.com, 2009. ISBN-13: 9780557060108
In Pursuit Of A Melody, Author
Joan Cartwright is the author of this 385-page anthology of her memoirs, poetry, 40 songs and two lectures: Amazing Women in Jazz and So, You Want To Be A Singer? A manual for up and coming Divas. For more of her books visit Books by Joan Cartwright

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