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Marian McPartland

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Marian McPartland (b. March 20, 1918), born Margaret Marian Turner in Slough, England, is a jazz pianist, violinist and host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio. The jazz critic Scott Yanow has said that McPartland is "... a harmonically sophisticated improviser, open to the influence of later stylists including Bill Evans."

Early life

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

Musical career

She pursued classical studies at the Guildhall School of Music in London. While enrolled there in 1938, Marian left to join The Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act, performing under the stage name Marian Page. The group toured throughout Europe during World War II, entertaining Allied troops.

While touring with USO shows in Belgium, she met and began to play with a Chicago cornetist named Jimmy McPartland in 1944. The two were married and performed at their own wedding at a military base in Germany.

After the war, the couple moved to Chicago. Then, in 1949, they moved to Manhattan where they lived in a floor through apartment in the same building as the Nordstrom Sisters. With Jimmy's help and encouragement, Marian started her own trio in 1952 and began a long residency at the famous New York City jazz nightclub, the Hickory House, from 1952-1960.

She began her own record label, Halcyon Records, and gradually began recording her own compositions, along with solo and ensemble works by others. Famous compositions include "There'll Be Other Times", "Twilight World", and "In the Days of Our Love".

McPartland claims not to read music (despite her early training). On the other hand, she plays and transposes in all keys.

Radio career

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 and is currently the longest-running cultural program on NPR. Several programs in the new series, which features Ms. McPartland at the keyboard with guest performers (usually pianists), have been released on CD by the Concord Records label. McPartland celebrated the 25th anniversary of the NPR series with a live taping at the Kennedy Center for which Peter Cincotti was the guest.

Awards

Honorary degrees

Other awards

External links



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