GEORGE CARTWRIGHT
Genres: Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Related Improv, Composition • United States

George Cartwright, a leading composer and performer of avant-garde music since 1979, was born in the Mississippi Delta community of Midnight (near Belzoni in Humphreys County) on 10 December 1950 to George and Elizabeth Rosa Cartwright. The Methodist Church was an early influence on his music and view of life. In high school he discovered the blues by reading in a magazine that Cream, his favorite rock band, drew inspiration from Mississippi Delta music. As a college student at Mississippi State University, from which he graduated in 1972 with a degree in sociology, he heard memorable performances by B. B. King and Big Joe Williams. A sense of vocation was mysteriously aroused when Howlin’ Wolf silently tapped him on the shoulder and shook his hand between sets at the Black Elks Club in Greenville. He also studied at the University of Southern Mississippi, where Wilbur Moreland was an influential music read more...