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The Process
Jill McManus, in a feature article on 'Women Jazz Composers And Arrangers', pointed out that the distinctive component and the challenge of jazz as an art form is improvisation, and that the jazz composer must consider building a framework of melody, chords, and rhythms to stimulate the creativity of the soloist during the improvising spaces (McManus, 1984: 198).
Within the context and history of jazz composing, Marian McPartland inhabits her own special way of constructing a piece that will open up expansively to improvisation. Her compositions are rich and ripe with an abiding love of impressionist harmonies, a meticulous way of crafting a melody, and an ear for the voicings of Duke Ellington and Bill Evans.
She was also influenced by the quality of composer Alec Wilder's pieces. The elusive, personal and idiomatic essence in Wilder's compositions was distilled in Marian McPartland's tribute album to the composer. This album, Marian McPartland: Plays The Music Of Alec Wilder, was recorded for the Halcyon Records label in 1973 and later released on Jazz Alliance in 1992. Marian disclosed the secret that 'his music has a timeless quality that transcends all musical fads and fashions which is why jazz musicians enjoy playing it so much' (McPartland, 1992).
It was Alec Wilder who urged Marian to compose every day, even giving her a set of notebooks for jotting down ideas. She announces with pride that Tony Bennett has recorded ‘Twilight World’, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and it has been released on LP (Hansson, Interview of Marian McPartland, November 2, 1999).
Marian McPartland has been composing since the 1950s, and originally she felt she had no confidence. Jimmy McPartland thought everything Marian wrote was great, so he was not the best critic. One publisher, Jack Robbins, used to come to the Hickory House and encouraged Marian to compose. At her first attempt, she wrote ‘Stranger In A Dream’, followed by ‘With You In Mind’. Mayfair Music was the publisher, but a lyric was never added to the tune.
In a recent interview, Marian was asked how many tunes she has written:
Maybe about fifty. Some of them have never seen the light of day. Some have, like ‘Ambiance', and ‘Twilight World', with a lyric by Johnny Mercer, and ‘In The Days Of Our Love', with a lyric by Peggy Lee. I wrote ‘Ambiance' in Norman, Oklahoma, while doing some stage-band clinics with kids. I always felt a little more ambitious around a bunch of music students. You had to prove yourself to show them you could do something. So I sat down and wrote that tune one afternoon, and one of the band directors made an arrangement of it (Enstice and Stockhouse, 2004: 245).
In 1965, Nat Hentoff wrote a feature article about Marian McPartland, ‘Britain's First Lady Of Jazz', in which she discussed her compositions:
I've been writing them for years, and I do seem to have a knack for writing moody ballads in a minor key; recently, some of them have gotten around. Ray Anthony has recorded my song 'With You In Mind' and Sarah Vaughan and Johnny Smith have cut 'There'll Be Other Times', while Gary Burton made a beautiful arrangement of 'So Many Things' for Victor (Hentoff, 1965).
According to Hentoff, Marian has been a long-time member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and her sponsor was Harold Arlen, a frequent Hickory House visitor by virtue of being a McPartland admirer (Hentoff, 1965).
In 1970, Marian McPartland was interviewed by Melody Maker during a visit to the UK. She spoke about her ‘side career' as a songwriter:
She has written several new numbers recently. ‘Herbie Hancock has one, Bill Evans has one, and I hope they will record them,' said Marian. The title song and four more on [the album] Ambiance are Marian's (Jones, 1970: 12).
A 1981 interview revealed how Marian McPartland began composing:
I started in England, but I got into it more at the Hickory House, where I played from early 1952 to about 1960. But I was rather unsure of the things I wrote, and I couldn't stand criticism. So whenever we played something I had written, I would announce it as something written by, for instance, Walter Bishop Jr. I don't know why I chose his name. I've never told him. I hope he won't be mad at me. Then if people came up to me and said they liked the tune, I'd tell them I wrote it. But I got over being scared pretty quickly and began to believe in my writing. Right now I have about six themes going, but I just haven't had time to work them out yet. Practising ‘Rhapsody In Blue' has taken up a lot of time (De Muth, 1981: 18).
When asked how important a lyric is to her when composing, Marian replied:
When I write I often make up a ‘dummy' lyric in my head or a situation for what will, I hope, become a song. Or I'll work from a title which gets me started and which may or may not wind up with dummy lyrics. I never thought of ‘Ambiance' [from Ambiance and From This Moment On] as anything but an instrumental. It just fell into place in about ten minutes. But that's unusual, believe me! (De Muth, 1981: 18).
In 1980, it was reported that Marian McPartland had to ‘switch brains' after playing the Grieg concerto to perform arrangements of her own compositions:
In the second half I do some jazz things arranged for the symphony. I've got two of my own pieces arranged: ‘Ambiance' and ‘Willow Creek'. I do an arrangement of ‘Eleanor Rigby' and a selection from ‘West Side Story'. You wouldn't think people would still like to hear that but they do (Ullman, 1980: 60).
Interviewed before the celebration of her 80th birthday in 1998, she played down her ability as a composer:
I've never had all that much faith in myself as a composer. I've never pushed my tunes on lyricists, or on other musicians. And I never wanted to play only my own things, either, the way some people do, though I now play a few of them more often than I used to (Teachout, 1998: 2).
The interviewer was of the opinion that, with the release of twelve of her compositions arranged by Alan Broadbent on the 1997 Concord Jazz release Silent Pool, both the compositions and her interpretations stand as a high point of a deeply satisfying oeuvre, the late harvest of a lifetime's musical wisdom:
Ms. McPartland's inclination to draw back and let others shine may make her the perfect host, but it has also stood in the way of her winning the recognition as a composer that she unquestionably deserves. Her songs have been recorded by the likes of Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughan, yet when praised for the poise and subtlety of such graceful melodies as ‘Ambiance' and ‘Twilight World' she deflects the compliment (Teachout, 1998: 2).
Marian McPartland began composing film music in the 1960s, with the score for an art film, Mark. Her scores for educational films Mural and The Light Fantastic Picture Show won awards at the Chicago Film Festival. The piece ‘A Delicate Balance' was commissioned by a ballet school for a film, and ‘The Key Of D Is Daffodil Yellow' was written for a children's program.
In a 1999 interview, Marian McPartland spoke of using her musical voice to make a statement about her concerns for the environment:
I'd love to write an environmental piece. I can think about it, but I'm like the donkey with the carrot. If somebody would give me a real incentive to do it, I'd get on with the musical composition. Did you ever read [Rachel Carson's] Silent Spring? Now, nobody even knows who she is. I would like to draw from that book and try to put in music things like cutting down all the redwoods, shooting all the animals, like poachers shooting elephants for their ivory. So many animals are heading towards extinction. I don't know if it is possible to do this in music, but I would love to try. I haven't got far with it. I wrote a little piano piece called ‘Silent Spring', and that's as far as I've got. You need a lot of time for things like that, and I guess as long as I'm doing Piano Jazz and concerts, so much goes into getting ready for these things (Hansson, Interview of Marian McPartland, November 2, 1999).
Such a major composition would have been Marian McPartland's gift to the world. [The temporal framework of this thesis ended in mid-2005. However, it seems appropriate to pay tribute to Marian’s composition ‘A Portrait Of Rachel Carson’ for symphony and improvised piano, arranged by Alan Broadbent, and premiered and recorded with the University Of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra. This performance was the centerpiece of a special Earth Day edition of Piano Jazz broadcast on NPR on April 21, 2008 (www.jazzitude.com)]
McManus, J. (1984) 'Women Music Composers And Arrangers', in Zaimont, J. L. (ed.) The Musical Woman: An International Perspective, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, pp. 197-208
McPartland, M. (1992) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland: Plays The Music Of Alec Wilder, The Jazz Alliance
Hansson, C. (1999) Interview of Marian McPartland, Port Washington, NY, November 2
Enstice, W. and Stockhouse, J. (2004) 'Interview With Marian McPartland', in Jazzwomen: Conversations With Twenty-One Musicians, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, pp. 230-251
Hentoff, N. (1965) ‘Britain's First Lady Of Jazz', Unknown source
Jones, M. (1970) ‘Halcyon Days For Marian’, Melody Maker, September 26, p. 12
De Muth, J. (1981) ‘Marian McPartland: First Lady Of Jazz Piano', Contemporary Keyboard, vol. 7, no. 2, February, pp. 16-20
Teachout, T. (1998) ‘The Grande Dame Of Jazz But Don't Tell Her That', The New York Times, March 15, pp. 2, 37
Ullman, M. (1980) ‘Marian McPartland', in Jazz Lives: Portraits In Words And Pictures, Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, pp. 53-63 Feather, L. (1977) ‘Piano Giants Of Jazz: Marian McPartland', Contemporary Keyboard, vol. 3, no. 2, December, p. 82
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Author: Clare Hansson
