Diva Joan Cartwright toured five continents and 20 countries, including the U.S.A., eight European countries, Brazil, Mexico, Ghana, Gambia, South Africa, Jamaica, China, and Japan, with her swinging brand of Jazz and Blues. Her anthology IN PURSUIT OF A MELODY contains 35 poems, 40 original compositions, and lyrics to standard songs:

• A Night in Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie
• Blue Bossa by Kenny Dorham
• TuneUp by Miles Davis
• Bessie's Blues by John Coltrane

Freddie Hubbard and the Kool Jazz-All Stars of 1983 recorded her composition Sweet Return on Atlantic Records. Also, Sweet Return is featured in the Freddie Hubbard Song Book. The Joan Cartwright Song Book is one of the only Jazz and Blues songbook published by a woman.

Born on December 7, in Kew Gardens, NY, Dr. Joan Cartwright is a professor of Speech Communication at Keiser University in Pembroke Pines, FL, and Southeastern College in West Palm Beach, FL. In July 2017, she completed her Doctorate in Business Administration/Marketing (DBA) at Northcentral University in Arizona. She composes, lectures, produces, researches, and documents Jazz and Blues history, and women musicians and composers.

Joan's lectures Amazing Musicwomen and So, You Want To Be A Singer? were funded by grants from BankAtlantic, Educate Tomorrow, Arts4Learning, Broward Schools, Miami Beach Cultural Division, Broward Cultural Division, and the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica, W.I. She conducted workshops at United Cerebral Palsy facilities, Broward Schools and Libraries in South Florida. In New York, she presented Amazing Musicwomen at York College and Langston Hughes Library and was a guest of the International Women in Jazz Festival in 2008. In 2010, she performed in Kingston, Jamaica, for the U.S. Embassy at Blues on the Green. In 2013, her Amazing Musicwomen Ensemble performed at the Sunrise Civic Center and Biennes Center for the Arts in Fort Lauderdale. In 2014, she performed and presented a workshop for the Grand Bahama Performing Arts Society in Freeport, Grand Bahamas. Also, in 2014, Joan’s quartet was featured at Jazz on 4, on the Allure of the Seas of Royal Caribbean Cruises. Joan is an ASCAP publisher and songwriter, and a member of Women in Music, in New York. Her organization WIJSF is an International Honor Committee member of Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica in Rome, Italy, and Women in Music Serbia.

In 2007, she founded WOMEN IN JAZZ SOUTH FLORIDA, INC., a non-profit that promotes women musicians, globally. WIJSF released six compilation CDs of 63 songs from 45 women composers. Since 2008, Joan hosted 280 episodes on MUSICWOMAN Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/musicwoman. During her 40-year career, Joan performed with Jazz giants Lou Donaldson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Dorothy Donegan, Philly Joe Jones, Shirley Scott, Trudy Pitts, Carline Ray, Paula Hampton, Bertha Hope, Kim Clarke, Giovanni Mazzarino, and hundreds of musicians in the U.S., Caribbean, Europe, and Asia!

divajc47@yahoo.com