Marian McPartland 1918 2013

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a legend of the airwaves and jazz

Ian T mentioned her passing on the Cedar Walton thread but the lady more than merits her own

.... which paved the way for Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, a National Public Radio series that began on 4 June 1978. It was the longest-running cultural program on NPR, as well as one of the longest-running jazz programs ever produced on public radio. The program featured McPartland at the keyboard with guest performers, usually pianists, but also singers, guitarists, other musicians, and even the non-musician Studs Terkel.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

a legend of the airwaves and jazz

Ian T mentioned her passing on the Cedar Walton thread but the lady more than merits her own

Those progams are excellent. She was very good at opening people up. The Ray Charles and Bill Evans esp. They are mostly still on the net at least in part via Tune in etc.


BN.

[Black Swan]

I totally agree her programs were fantastic for me my first introduction to Piano Jazz. She will be greatly missed.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well she was born over here, of course - 1918 was it? because Jazz The Essential Companion states 1920 ; and dare one say she did well to make it in the world of American jazz as a woman, at the time she did? Furthermore, she kept up with stylistic change: I remember her playing modes along with McCoy Tyner, beyond her own I thought rather Tristanoite approach, and the two of them talking about Coltrane's approach being different from what had come before. She played him a piece of her own called "Ambience", and he was genuinely knocked out by it: it could easily have been a piece by Chick Corea.

[Ian Thumwood]

I've never heard her programme but I would have been an avid listener had it appeared on BBC. In my opinion, piano jazz is the apogee of the music and whilst I love to listen to jazz composers, I think it is the pianists who are the real heroes of the music having to work out the harmonic / rhythmic applications of the latest developments.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've never heard her programme but I would have been an avid listener had it appeared on BBC. In my opinion, piano jazz is the apogee of the music and whilst I love to listen to jazz composers, I think it is the pianists who are the real heroes of the music having to work out the harmonic / rhythmic applications of the latest developments.

It was on the BBC - I'm talking the late 1980s here: I think it was a 15-minute programme in its own right? On Radio 2?

[Alyn_Shipton]

Indeed S-A it was on the BBC, but as excerpts within Sound of Jazz and Jazz Notes during Digby's tenure. Usually, as you say, 15 to 20 minute segment.
Needless to say, the Jazz Library programme I did with Marian is still downloadable from the Radio 3 website.

[Serial_Apologist]

Indeed S-A it was on the BBC, but as excerpts within Sound of Jazz and Jazz Notes during Digby's tenure. Usually, as you say, 15 to 20 minute segment.
Needless to say, the Jazz Library programme I did with Marian is still downloadable from the Radio 3 website.

Well worth a listen for those who (like me) missed it first time around, so thanks Alyn

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00g3qnl

[Exonian]

Thanks for the reminders about the Marian McPartland excerpts as pasrt of Digby Fairweather's programmes - I had forgotten them but so often they were a real highlight. It is rare when someone's passing can evoke the 'legend' epithet but fully deserved in her case. Her radio broadcasts recorded on the Jazz Alliance lable are very good - sometimes revelatory - and a good friend of mine has just about the complete set. Anyone remember those albums she did with George Shearing?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

she truly opened up Bill Evans but here is an example of her catholic approach to her fellow musicians