Marian McPartland

Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE (née Turner; born 20 March 1918), is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and was the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio until she stepped down on 10 November 2011.

Marian Turner was a musical prodigy from the time she could sit at the piano, about the age of three. She studied classical music and the violin, in addition to the piano.

Career

She pursued classical studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Much to the dismay of her family, she developed a love for American jazz and musicians such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Mary Lou Williams, and many others. In 1938, despite her family's efforts to keep her at Guildhall, Marian left to join Billy Mayerl's Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act, performing under the stage name of Marian Page. The group toured throughout Europe during World War II, entertaining Allied troops.

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Jazz pianist Marian McPartland at the Village Jazz Lounge in Walt Disney World

While touring with USO shows in Belgium, she met and began performing with Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland in 1944. The couple soon married, playing at their own military base wedding in Germany.

After the war, they moved to Chicago to be near Jimmy's family. Then, in 1949, the McPartlands settled in Manhattan, living in an apartment in the same building as the Nordstrom Sisters. With Jimmy's help and encouragement, Marian started her own trio which enjoyed a long residency at a New York City jazz club, the Hickory House, during 1952–1960. The drummer Joe Morello was a member of the group until he departed to join Dave Brubeck's Quartet. She also played at The Embers.

In the 1953–1954 season, McPartland appeared as a regular on NBC's Judge for Yourself quiz program emceed by Fred Allen, with Dennis James as the announcer.

In 1958 a black and white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians, including McPartland, was photographed in front of a Brownstone in Harlem, New York City. Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the photo, which was called, "A Great Day in Harlem", and it became an iconic view of NY's Jazz scene at the time. As of Marian McPartland's 95th birthday on March 20, 2013, she was one of only four of the 57 musicians who participated who was still living. Along with McPartland, other jazz notables featured in the photograph are Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and saxophonist Benny Golson, who, like McPartland, is among the few still alive as of June 2013.

After many years of recording for labels such as Capitol, Savoy, Argo, Sesac, Time, and Dot, in 1969 she founded her own record label, Halcyon Records, before having a long association with the Concord Jazz label.

Radio career

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Marian McPartland interviews Ramsey Lewis on her radio show, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz in 2009

In 1964, Marian McPartland launched a new venture on WBAI-FM (New York City), conducting a weekly radio program that featured recordings and interviews with guests. Pacifica Radio's West Coast stations also carried this series, which paved the way for Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, a National Public Radio series that began on 4 June 1978. It is the longest-running cultural program on NPR as well as one of the longest-running jazz programs ever produced on public radio. The program features McPartland at the keyboard with guest performers, usually pianists, but also singers, guitarists, other musicians, and even the non-musician Studs Terkel. Several Piano Jazz programs have been released on CD by Concord Records.

McPartland celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the NPR series with a live taping at the Kennedy Center for which Peter Cincotti was the guest.

After she had not recorded a new show since September 2010. NPR announced on 10 November 2011 that McPartland was stepping down as host of Piano Jazz. She then asked her long time friend, Jazz pianist Jon Weber to carry on with the show. As a result, Piano Jazz: Rising Stars, a series hosted by Weber, began broadcast on NPR January 3rd, 2012. Still, Piano Jazz soon returned to the air in repeat broadcasts.

Awards and compositions

Marian was awarded a Grammy in 2004, a Trustees' Lifetime Achievement Award, for her work as an educator, writer, and host of NPR Radio's long-running Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Although a master at adapting to her guest's musical styles and having a well-known affinity for beautiful and harmonically-rich ballads, she also has recorded many tunes of her own. Her compositions include "Ambiance", "There'll Be Other Times", "With You In Mind", "Twilight World", and "In the Days of Our Love".

Just before her 90th birthday, she composed and performed a symphonic piece, A Portrait of Rachel Carson, to mark the centennial of the environmental pioneer.

McPartland was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.

Musical style

McPartland's encyclopaedic knowledge of jazz standards, highly musical ear, involvement in over 60 years of evolving jazz styles, and rich experience blending with radio guests have led to a musical style that has been described as "flexible and complex, and almost impossible to pigeonhole". She is known as a harmonically and rhythmically complex and inventive improviser: "She was never content to be in one place, and always kept improving. She has great ears and great harmonics. Because of her ear, she can go into two or three different keys in a tune and shift with no problem."

She also is a synesthete, associating different musical keys with colours, stating that "The key of D is daffodil yellow, B major is maroon, and B flat is blue".

Discography

• Marian McPartland at the Hickory House (Capitol, 1955)
• Marian McPartland After Dark (Capitol, 1956)
• Marian McPartland at the London House (Argo, 1959)

With Helen Merrill

• Merrill at Midnight (EmArcy, 1957)

Awards

Honorary degrees

• Ithaca College
• Hamilton College
• Union College
• Bates College
• Bowling Green State University
• University of South Carolina
• Eastman School of Music
• Berklee College of Music
• City University of New York

Other awards

• Down Beat Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2007 – National Radio Hall of Fame
• 2006 – Long Island Music Hall of Fame induction
• 2004 – Grammy Trustees Award from the Recording Academy
• 2001 – American Eagle Award from the National Music Council
• 2001 – Gracie Allen Award from the American Women in Radio and Television
• 2000 – NEA Jazz Masters Award
• 2000 – Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award
• 1991 – ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award
• 1986 – International Jazz Association of Jazz Education Hall of Fame induction
• 1983 – Peabody Award

External links

• The Sweet and Lovely Legacy of Marian McPartland
• Marian McPartland's Official Facebook Page
• Marian McPartland bio
• Piano Jazz: Meet Marian McPartland
• Marian McPartland, Grande Dame of 'Piano Jazz'
• NPR's version of Marian McPartland's biography
• "Marian McPartland Plays Ornette Coleman (and Everything Else!") by Ted Gioia, Jazz.com.
• "Interview with Marian McPartland" by Arnold Jay Smith, Jazz.com.
• "Marian McPartland, Jazz Pianist: An Overview Of A Musical Career"
• "ETV Radio celebrates 90th birthday of jazz legend Marian McPartland"

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