George Cartwright

George Cartwright, recognized above all for his leadership of the ensemble Curlew, works as a composer, saxophonist, and improviser. Raised in Mississippi, he spent the 1970s at Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio in upstate New York, studying with Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, and Oliver Lake. After settling in Manhattan, Cartwright joined the late-1970s “punk jazz” circle that included Bill Laswell, Fred Frith, and the founding members of Curlew, while also improvising alongside John Zorn, Charles K. Noyes, Polly Bradfield, and George Lewis.

In the early 1980s he issued the duet album Bright Bank Elewhale, an entirely improvised LP recorded with clarinetist Michael Lytle, and he participated in two releases by the collective Meltable Snaps It, whose shifting lineup at various times featured Lytle, Christian Marclay, David Moss, and Tom Cora. From the mid-1980s forward Cartwright concentrated his energies on Curlew, which produced the albums Curlew, North America, Live in Berlin, Bee, and A Beautiful Western Saddle as well as the live video The Hardwood. He has also presented a music-and-text work written with Anne Elias. His first solo recording, Dot, moved away from the band-oriented language of his earlier projects toward a more intimate focus; later he released The Memphis Years in 2000.