Marian McPartland

Marian McPartland
St. Joseph's Villa school for disadvantaged children, 1975
Background information
Birth name	Margaret Marian Turner
Born	March 20, 1918 (1918-03-20) (age 93)
Origin	Slough, England, UK
Genres	Classical jazz Cool jazz Bebop Mainstream jazz Swing music Post bop Standards
Occupations	Pianist Radio host Writer Composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1938–present
Labels	Halcyon Records Concord Jazz Jazz Alliance Bainbridge Records Savoy Records Capitol Records RCA Records
Associated acts	Jimmy McPartland Hickory House Trio
Notable instruments
Baldwin SF10 Artist Grand [1]

Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE (née Turner;^[2] born March 20, 1918) is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.

Early life

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.

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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

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 June 4, 1978. It is the longest-running cultural program on NPR as well as being one of the longest-running jazz programs ever produced on public radio.

Several programs in the new series, which features McPartland at the keyboard with guest performers (usually pianists), have been released on CD by the Concord Records label. 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.

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.^[5]

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.^[6]

Musical style

McPartland's encyclopedic knowledge of jazz standards, highly musical ear, involvement in over 60 years of evolving jazz styles, and rich experience blending with radio guests^[7] has led to a musical style that has been described as: "flexible and complex, and almost impossible to pigeonhole".^[8] 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."^[9]

She also is a synesthete, associating different musical keys with colors, stating that: "The key of D is daffodil yellow, B major is maroon, and B flat is blue".^[10]

Awards

Honorary degrees

• Ithaca College
• Hamilton College
• Union College
• Bates College
• Bowling Green 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

Notes

1. ^ http://www.gibson.com/whatsnew/pressrelease/2003/mar20a.html
2. ^ Hasson, Claire Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career. PhD Thesis. Retrieved on 2008-08-12.
3. ^ Jazz spots such as the Hickory House and The Embers were thriving night clubs.
4. ^ Judge for Yourself in Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, A Complete Directory to Prime Time Cable and Network TV Shows , 1946 - Present, p. 622. New York: Random House Publishing, 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=DyS3t8z6_ckC&pg=PA622&lpg=PA622&dq=Judge+for+Yourself+(1953+TV+series)#v=onepage&q=Judge%20for%20Yourself%20(1953%20TV%20series)&f=false. Retrieved June 11, 2011. 
5. ^ Day, Jeffrey (2007-11-13). Jazz great McPartland to unveil symphonic piece on Rachel Carson. [popmatters.com]. Retrieved on 2009-04-26.
6. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59282. p. 24. 31 December 2009.
7. ^ Hasson, Claire. A Discussion Of Marian McPartland's Style in Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career
8. ^ MacFadyen, J. Tevere (1985) Liner notes to Marian McPartland: Willow Creek And Other Ballads, Concord Jazz Inc.
9. ^ Zych, D. (1997) 'Marian McPartland: True Devotion', JazzTimes, vol. 27, no. 8, October, pp. 31-37.
10. ^ Balliett, W. (1977) New York Notes: A Journal Of Jazz In The Seventies, New York: Da Capo Press Inc. p. 289.

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"

Persondata
Name	Macpartland, Marian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 20, 1918
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death