"George Cartwright is a Minnesota-based composer, performer, bandleader, producer and musical collaborator, with a prolific career spanning over 30 years. His career began in his home state of Mississippi, shaped by a childhood woven through with early memories of singing in church and learning songs at his grandfather's knee. He grew up on rock-n-roll and fell in love with jazz after hearing Charles Lloyd's iconic "Forest Flower," and like the British bands that he listened to in high school, he was also heavily influenced by the blues being played literally in his own backyard of the Mississippi Delta.

Musical instrument exploration naturally followed, beginning with piano lessons and later guitar, learning to play by ear. During this phase, George began his initial foray into composing, writing lyrical pieces, as well as instrumental pieces in the manner of Mississippi John Hurt and John Fahey. He bought his first sax on his 2 birthday from a secondhand thrift store for $65-a gift from his grandmother. Irresistibly drawn to the beauty and passion of jazz saxophone - not to mention experiencing a musical epiphany after hearing Ornette Coleman's "Dancing in Your Head" - George began to purposefully channel his energy into composing.

Post-college, he studied at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, where he was exposed to the music and concepts of Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton, Karl Berger, Frederic Rzewski, Kalaparusha, Ursula Oppens, Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, and many other major jazz innovators of the time.

The late 70's involved a move to New York City, where George formed a trio with Michael Lytle and David Moss, known as Meltable Snaps It, performing at such venues as The Kitchen, The Franklin Furnace, Phil Niblock's Experimental Intermedia Foundation, and Inroads. In 1979, he also formed his band Curlew with bassist Bill Laswell, which went on to record 12 CDs and LPs under the Cuneiform Records label, among others. The band included such notables as Tom Cora, Fred Frith, Wayne Horwitz, Davey Williams and Ann Rupel, and performed at high-profile jazz festivals and venues in North America and Europe.

In 1993, George returned to his Southern roots, relocating to Memphis, Tennessee. Over the next six years, he continued to collaborate with fellow musicians, compose, perform and produce recordings with Curlew. During this time, he also produced a solo CD 'The Memphis Years".

George moved to his current home base in the Twin Cities in 1999, where he found a tremendous wealth of like-minded musicians, with whom he continues to collaborate and record to this day. George has worked with a wide range of artists both domestically and abroad. In addition to composing, George continues to perform locally in the Twin Cities. Performances include The Cedar Cultural Center, numerous events at The Walker Art Center, Studio Z, The Black Dog. Jazz Central and others."

Steve Hirsh: "About Me

I come from a non-musical family. But every week growing up, I'd get my allowance and go to the local record store to pick up the latest hit. At 10 years old, I started guitar lessons at a neighborhood community center. I wanted to learn Beatles tunes but instead found myself learning classical guitar. I wasn't into it and stopped after a year. Then in junior high, I had a band/orchestra class. I started off playing alto sax. But in the summer after my first year, I got braces on my teeth and my orthodontist told my mother that playing a reed instrument would be bad for my overbite. So in my second year, I started on drums because I figured it would be the easiest instrument to catch up on. The bug bit me then, and I would spend hours playing along to records on my snare drum.

I went to a specialized public high school in New York City that focused on math and science. They had no music classes, except for a single music appreciation class that dealt entirely with European classical music. There was one Black girl in my class (!). One day she asked the teacher why he didn't teach anything about jazz and Miles Davis and John Coltrane. That was the first time I heard those names. The teacher said something dismissive and moved on.

Somewhere around there I got my first drum set and was trying to figure out how to play it. One day in the library, I was thumbing through the record collection and came across Kind of Blue and Blue Trane. I remembered hearing Miles' and Trane's names and took the records home. I was astounded by what I heard, particularly drummer Philly Joe Jones on Blue Trane. I had no idea what or how he was playing and could hardly believe that there was only 1 drummer.

Over the next 10 or so years, I dove deeper and deeper into the music. I worked forwards and backwards - Bitches Brew-era Miles, and late John Coltrane, and Max and Bird and then everyone in between, and then back to Basie and Ellington and Papa Jo Jones. I was playing in rock and blues bands and saw jazz drumming as beyond my abilities. After my 2nd year of college, I told my parents that I wanted to transfer to Berklee College of Music. But I had no one to help me navigate that change and I was unable to do it myself. Eventually, I just quit college, moved to California, and started playing in bands. I wound up hanging out and then working at Keystone Korner. I saw everyone there - Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Rhasaan Roland Kirk, Stan Getz, Mary Lou Williamson, the house band with George Cables and Eddie Marshal, Billy Higgins, Woody Shaw, Elvin Jones. And I started trying to play the music. But eventually, I quit playing for a variety of reasons, including the inability to believe I could really ever play it well and authentically, and the need to get away from the drug scene (this was San Francisco in the mid-'70s). But I never stopped listening, and eventually went back to playing in rock and blues bands.

I quit playing again in the early 80s but then picked it back up 20 years later when I bought my son a drum set. I bought it for him, then took it over (I sat down behind it to check it out and didn't come out for a week.). I've been playing steadily since then. I played a lot of straight-ahead jazz gigs, a lot of dinner jazz. But I always had a taste for the more outside sounds, and for the last few years, that's exclusively what I've been playing.

I have led several improvising ensembles in the last few years, and have played most of the Twin Cities venues that are open to this music, including Khyber Pass Cafe, The Icehouse, Jazz Central Studios, The Cedar Cultural Center, and Grand Oak Opry. I started a regular series at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, featuring my groups and other improvising ensembles. I also hosted a weekly open session there, where anyone could come and gain experience improvising with experienced players.

I've played with (among others) William Parker, Joel Futterman, Eri Yamamoto, Matthew Shipp, Ivo Perelman, Luke Stewart, Douglas Ewart, Babatunde Lea, George Cartwright, Donald Washington, Chad Fowler, Zoh Amba, Brad Holden, Dick Studer, Josh Granowski, Matt Trice, Kavyesh Kaviraj, and DeVon Russell Grey.

In the past year, with the isolation of the pandemic and the near-total loss of performance opportunities, I have become involved in several remote collaborations, with both old and new friends. There are a few of those on the Recordings page, if you're curious.

My latest releases are Ebb & Flow, with Joel Futterman and Chad Fowler, Notice That There, with Geirge Cartwright, Chad Fowler, Christopher Parker and Kelley Hurt, Warp & Weft, a collaboration with the extraordinary pianist Joel Futterman, Two Five None, a duo with Chad Fowler, and You Know When It's Time by Original Mind, all on Mahakala Music https://mahakalamusic.bandcamp.com/. There's more stuff coming - follow me on Bandcamp, follow Mahakala Music, and send me a note asking to be added to my email list.

I endorse Canopus drums and Bosphorus cymbals. Beautiful instruments I'm lucky to play.

Born and raised in New York City, I now make my home in the woods of Northern Minnesota."

"I'm Chad Fowler. I write books, write and play music, write software, lead organizations (currently for Microsoft, in Berlin), invest in startups, speak at conferences, teach, learn, organize conferences, etc.

I started and co-organized a couple of Ruby-related conferences including The International Ruby Conference and RailsConf."

"New York based pianist Chris Parker is a multifaceted performer and composer who has written for everything from small jazz groups and chamber ensembles to full symphony orchestra. With a long list of original works, he heads his own group that offers a diverse, lineup of Latin, funk and straight-ahead jazz. Contemporary jazz icons Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Chris Vadala and Lyn Seaton have all performed with Parker's band.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Parker started classical piano lessons at age nine. Eventually earning Bachelors and Masters degrees in music composition, Parker moved to New York where he has been Professor of Music and head of jazz studies at SUNY Orange. A New York Chancellor's Award winner, Parker engages and inspires students as he teaches them the skills they will need as future musicians.

His two CDs on the OA2 label, "Late in Lisbon" and the newly released "Full Circle" feature the unusual frontline of saxophone and violin. The albums are an exciting mix of Parker's original jazz compositions ranging in style from burning latin and straight ahead, to funky tunes and laid back ballads."

Kelley Hurt is an American jazz singer, known for the groups Dopolarians, George Cartwright/Chad Fowler/Steve Hirsh/Chris Parker, and The Music of Frank Lowe.