Women in Jazz

Our plan

Our plan is to relate the history of women who brought jazz and blues music to the forefront of American society, from Gertrude "Ma" Rainey to Abby Lincoln, through lecture and song. As a jazz singer and composer, founder Joan Cartwright saw that there was a void in the world of music that needed to be filled. School-aged children in Broward County, Florida did not have musical role models that looked like them. In 1997, she applied for and was awarded her first grant to present Women in Jazz at 10 schools from 3rd to 12th grades. In 1998, she received the second grant, and the third in 2000. For 12 years, Ms. Cartwright brought her Women in Jazz presentation to schools, colleges, universities, museums and libraries in the U.S., China and Japan, reaching 7,000 students with her lecture/concert. They learned the history of 10 women, the songs that they made popular, and how to scat sing. On March 28, 2008, Ms. Cartwright was invited to bring her presentation to York College in Queens, NY, her birthplace, by the Women's Studies Dept. On October 30, 2008 and March 7, 2009, she fulfilled a grant from the Friends of the African American Research Library and Cultural Center with an eight-member ensemble of singers and instrumentalists that told the story of Women in Jazz. She presented her program at Miami-Dade Community College on February 3, 2009 for Black History Month and on April 23, 2009 at the Oakland Park City Library. Other places that she has presented are the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach; Florida International University, in North Miami; The International School of Tianjin, in China and Tokyo International School in Japan.

What we did

With piano accompaniment, Ms. Cartwright visited 10 schools in the Broward County School System, from 3rd to 12th grade. The 45 minute presentation entails a short introduction on the origins of jazz and blues from the West Coast of Africa to the shores of Eastern United States. Ten women are portrayed in a poster image that the children address. Ms. Cartwright sings a song that each woman sang on stage -- for example, for Ella Fitzgerald, she sings "A Tisket A Tasket" and for Mary Lou Williams, she sings "In A Mellow Tone" written by Duke Ellington and most likely arranged by Williams. After two years, Ms. Cartwright realized that the children were very excited by the music and improvisational singing that she taught them, commonly known as "scatting." So she composed a song, "Love Translation," based upon a G major arpeggio that is very calming. Many teachers commented that the children were so calm after the presentation that they were actually yawning on their exit from the auditorium. Each year the presentation got better and better. By 2000, schools were requesting Ms. Cartwright's program during Black History Month. In 2001, Dr. Carole Boyce-Davies, Director of Africana Studies at FIU, partnered with the Women's Studies Dept. to bring Ms. Cartwright to that school. The fee of $750 per performance has been paid over and over by school districts, colleges, libraries and museums. In 2007, Ms. Cartwright founded Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. and filed for 501(c)(3) status to continue the work of promoting Women in Jazz nationwide and globally. Her book, IN PURSUIT OF A MELODY [Trafford Publishing 2006], contains her lecture, that was subsequently published in 2008 as AMAZING MUSICWOMEN. On March 28, 2009, the Dean of York College and the head of Women's Studies contracted Ms. Cartwright to perform Women in Jazz and to facilitate two lectures at the campus in Queens, NY. That same week, Ms. Cartwright was the guest of Women in Jazz in Manhattan, NY, at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, where she performed several of her original compositions. Through a grant from the Friends of the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Ms. Cartwright's eight-member Women in Jazz Ensemble did two rehearsal workshops on October 30, 2008, for 300 performing arts students at the library. On March 7, 2009, the ensemble will perform the program for the General Public at the library. For Black History Month, on February 3, 2009, Ms. Cartwright and her pianist will bring the performance to Miami Dade Community College and again on April 23, 2009, at the Oakland Park City Library. Aside from her presentation, performances, books and CDs, Ms. Cartwright maintains a website, www.wijsf.org, that documents the lives of 64 Women in Jazz and Blues. Also, she is the host of an online radio show, MUSICWOMAN LIVE! on www.blogtalkradio.com/musicwoman, that features women who compose and perform their own music and men who support them.