Defending The 'Underdog'
Margaret Marian Turner achieved her breakthrough
into jazz music due to the unusual circumstances of war, when women were valued
and, in fact, requisitioned to fill roles usually held by men. During her
war service in entertainment units in Europe, Margaret Turner, then using the stage name Marian Page, met famed American cornet player, Jimmy
McPartland. Through propinquity, they fell in love and were married in Aachen, Germany, in 1945. The encouragement of her husband, Jimmy McPartland, ensured
his bride a place in jazz in Chicago in his all-star band. From her early listening to the BBC in England and to jazz recordings, the young Margaret had
based her style on black American male piano players, such as Fats Waller,
Art Tatum, Duke Ellington and Teddy Wilson.
However, at the same time she
had also heard on radio black women pianists like Louis Armstrong's wife Lil
Hardin, Cleo Brown, Mary Lou Williams and Hazel Scott, and she realized that
their contributions were more than ephemeral:
My first and main influence was not a woman,
but a man - a very great man named Duke Ellington. I'll always be grateful
to a boyfriend who brought Duke's and other jazz recordings over to our house
and made me really listen; he made me aware of the Ellington band's unique
orchestral sounds - the quality and tone color of each soloist - Duke as a
pianist - his way of voicing chords - the strong, exciting rhythms of the
band. I absorbed it all - and from then on I was hooked! (McPartland, 2003: 3).
When she began her jazz career in New York, Marian McPartland was labelled 'English, white
and a girl' before she proved her mettle. This made her aware of obstacles encountered
by other women instrumentalists.
In 1964, a prominent male critic in an article
on Mary Lou Williams referred to Williams as an 'exception', and ventured
that women have merely decorated instruments with strings - piano, harp and
guitar. He referred to jazz as 'a particularly male music for which
most women lack the physical equipment - to say nothing of the poise.'
Marian McPartland, as an Englishwoman who had found success
in the United States, was commissioned to write an article 'You've Come A
Long Way, Baby' for Esquire Magazine's second World Of Jazz issue in 1975. The first Esquire issue devoted to jazz had been published
in January 1959 (the Esquire 'Golden Age Of Jazz' issue). In the preface to Marian McPartland's 1975 essay, Mary Lou Williams was quoted as saying:
Actually, I've known only three or four women
musicians who were good enough to take the place of men. As a matter of fact,
once I tried to organize an all-girl band and I just couldn't find enough
talent. Maybe, though, I've been playing with male musicians for so many
years that I've developed a superiority complex (McPartland, 1975: 134).
When asked by an impertinent interviewer
if 1980 was the Year of the Woman in Jazz as it seemed to be a 'trendy thing',
Marian offered this opinion:
Oh, I don't know, it's getting better now -
they even occasionally announce that Lil Armstrong wrote 'Struttin' With Some
Barbecue' and not Louis. I'm hoping every year will be the Year of the Woman.
There are so many of them out there that I didn't even know about.You seem
to have to go to such lengths to get people's attention. I think all the
good woman players really want it - just to work in groups and be musicians.
I don't think they want to form an all-girls band. I don't (Rusch, 1980: 13).
One of Marian McPartland's first examples
of presenting a highly talented woman in jazz was when she chose Mary Lou
Williams to be her first guest on her radio program Piano Jazz:
The first show was with Mary Lou and I was scared
to death of her. She was an intimidating lady, although really we were very
good friends, but I should have started with somebody easier to handle. But
it all worked out and wound up being a very good show after all. I admired
and respected her so much that I guess it showed (Voce, 1987: 7-8).
Some of Mary Lou Williams' tunes are in
Marian's repertoire today, and in 1994 she devoted a whole album to Williams' compositions
- Marian McPartland: Plays The Music Of Mary Lou Williams. Marian has recorded other tribute albums dedicated to the compositions of male musicians - Leonard Bernstein, Billy Strayhorn,
Benny Carter, Alec Wilder and Duke Ellington. However, on this recording she captured the flavor
and diversity of Williams' compositions, including a waltz Marian composed as
a lament for her fellow musician - 'Threnody'.
Marian McPartland's admiration for Mary
Lou Williams sprang from Williams' way of moving her music with the times, and was
nothing to do with her gender.
'That ability is what I always liked about her,' says Marian. 'She was forever changing and improving; unlike so many musicians, she didn't just reach a pinnacle and stay there. She was always wanting to be one jump ahead of whatever was going on - she used to say that she wanted to surprise people and be in the vanguard of whatever was being done, musically. And she really was' (Albertson, 1994).
Interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition
when promoting this album, Marian was asked by host Bob Edwards if she felt she was passing on Mary Lou's legacy to other women. Marian felt, that with so many women players out there, it would be a great tribute to this pioneer musician for her pieces to be played more in public. Mary Lou had been teaching at Duke University when she died, away from the public eye.
A review of this album applauds
the project:
McPartland, extensively through her radio program
on National Public Radio, is a fine pianist in her own right and a longtime admirer
of Williams. Here, she interprets, with bass and drum accompaniment, fourteen songs
either composed by Williams or closely associated with her. She does it in
fine style too, and adds to the legacy of Williams, part of which is putting
to rest the sexist thinking that female pianists are somehow different from
their male counterparts. McPartland's wonderful treatments are especially
noteworthy on 'What's Your Story, Morning Glory?' and 'Dirge Blues', the latter
written as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy (Bogle, 1994).
Mary Lou Williams was regarded as 'exceptional', especially among her peers, and Marian McPartland was quoted as saying that Williams
served as an early role model for her:
Mary Lou always believed in what was new and
creative.She kept moving along with the times; that's what I like about her
most of all. Once she told me, 'I wrote a tune - it's all about far-out music.'
Then she started to giggle. The tune was a take-off on avant-garde music,
and her title for it was 'A Fungus Among Us' (Holmes and Thomson, 1986: 35).
'It seemed so natural to me that women
were a part of jazz,' Marian McPartland said in 1981. 'They've been a great inspiration
to me' (De Muth, 1981).
In her Esquire article, Marian
McPartland wrote of first becoming aware of talented women musicians during
her years in Chicago. She heard a woman vibraphone player
for the first time when Margie Hyams came through town with George Shearing.
Marian was also impressed with the talent of singer and pianist Jeri Southern
when she and Jimmy worked opposite her at the Hi-Note on Clark Street. Marian was influenced by Southern's 'particular kind of delicate but strong playing as she accompanied
herself without a rhythm section using her own lush chords' (McPartland, 1975: 136).
She also put forward the names of women who played other instruments, such as
vibraphone players Margie Hyams, Dardanelle Hadley, Terry Pollard and Alice
McLeod (later Coltrane).
Marian McPartland also drew attention to the underrated stride pianist
Norma Teagarden, sister of jazz legends Jack and Charlie Teagarden. She singled
out band leader/arranger/pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, influenced by Bud Powell,
who had her first job in New York at the Hickory House. Marian McPartland's article
went on to highlight other women instrumentalists who had made an impact - trumpeter
Norma Carson, guitarist Mary Osborne, alto saxophonist Vi Redd, trombonist
and arranger Melba Liston, bassist Carline Ray, drummer Dottie Dodgion, and
the powerhouse jazz organist Shirley Scott, who led many a swinging band.
Some of the above names appeared on Marian McPartland's Now's The Time
recording in 1977 for Halcyon Records, her own record label.
According to Whitney Balliett, the owner
of the Hickory House, John Popkin, appeared to prefer small quiet groups led by women:
I've had small, quiet groups, a lot of them
led by women, like Mary Osborne, the guitarist, Jutta Hipp and Toshiko; Marjorie
Hyams, the vibraphonist; and of course, Marian McPartland, who's a fixture,
and who gave Joe Morello his start. George Shearing started here, too, and
so did Peter Nero, in 1959. He was Bernie Nierow then, and an intermission
pianist (Balliett, 1968: 55).
For a woman pianist trying to make a name for herself
in New York, the Hickory House offered the opportunity
to succeed, as it was such a popular jazz room frequented by so many musicians and composers. At one stage, a fine pianist named Pat Moran occupied the piano
chair in the oval bar.
Philadelphia pianist Beryl Booker was another well-known name at the time. Sponsored by Leonard Feather, she recorded and toured an all-woman trio to Europe. Although the women, with their rehearsed routines, attracted
much applause as a warm-up to Billie Holiday on her first European tour,
they encountered difficulties back home:
Back in New York, the group struggled to stay together, but the odds were insuperable: the absence of a hit record, coupled with suspicion concerning the validity
of an all-female group, counteracted the unquestionably favorable reaction
to the trio in the few clubs they played. The project was reluctantly abandoned
that summer (Feather, 1986: 134).
After working occasionally with bassist Slam Stewart
and later rejoining Dinah Washington, Beryl Booker became disillusioned with the jazz scene, as did Jutta
Hipp and vibraphone player Margie Hyams.
However, the elegant pianist/vocalist,
Barbara Carroll, survived personal tragedy and the ups and downs of the jazz
scene through sheer talent and persistence. In a written interview, she claims that her success rests on her musicianship, combined with determination, a passion for the music, and a refusal to give up (Hansson, Written Interview of Barbara Carroll, November 19, 1999). She followed Marian McPartland
into Bemelmans Bar in the Hotel Carlyle in the late 1970s, and has carved out an impressive
career as both soloist and leader of her own trio. A special jazz salute was held in her honor in New
York in May 2004. Barbara and Marian were introduced
to each other by a male musician on 52nd
Street in the parlance of the day ('I think you two
chick piano players should know one another'). Since then they have exchanged jazz rooms over
the years when the need arose.
Concluding the Esquire article, Marian
wrote, 'Yes, you HAVE come a long way, baby - but you've really always been
there' (McPartland, 1975: 139).
From her own experience, Marian McPartland
realized that, as a highly visible and successful jazzwoman, she was in a position
to support and be a spokesperson for other women in, or aspiring to, the business.
The young Margaret Turner had two disadvantages when she started out in England.
Not only was there family pressure to dissuade her from embarking on a jazz
career, but also she had no early training with jazz bands, that being the
way most musicians learned the rules of the game. During one of her early
Piano Jazz sessions on NPR, Marian confessed, 'I never had a foundation.
I was always searching and looking and listening to other people.' It would
became her greatest asset that she was not locked into a style early in her
career, and her flexibility and versatility as a stylist can be heard as she
weaves in and around her guest musicians on Piano Jazz. During her
twenty-five years hosting Piano Jazz, Marian McPartland has consistently
used the program as one of her strongest platforms for advocating jazz music,
for promoting jazz artists who need wider exposure, and for educating her
audience to all that improvisatory music has to offer.
Marian McPartland got her start in
jazz through the influence of a man, her husband Jimmy McPartland. She
realized that by placing her trust in the potentiality of younger artists,
she could encourage them to succeed in what is still a tough career to sustain
without getting the 'breaks'. After the McPartlands moved to New York, they went
to hear Joe Bushkin and his group at the jazz room The Embers, then THE most
popular jazz room in New York. The room was intimate yet very noisy, and
Marian was so eager to play there that Jimmy convinced the owner, Ralph Watkins,
to bring Marian and her trio in:
He agreed. I opened with Eddie Safranski on
bass and Don Lamond on drums, my first trio engagement. I was nervous and
at the same time thrilled to be playing in a top room in New
York with two of the town's best musicians. In addition,
the job called for us to accompany Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge! These
two musicians were my idols for years, and I never dreamed I would actually
be required to play for them. It was almost too much for someone new on the
scene, but by this time, from my experience with Jimmy, I knew more about
accompanying horn players, and now my apprenticeship in other areas really
started - learning how to handle new situations; how to play in different
styles; finding out the kind of accompaniment different musicians liked to
hear behind them; learning to relate to an audience, and how to treat the
sidemen (McPartland, 1975: 136).
Once established thanks to Jimmy's sponsorship,
Marian received mostly favorable press and was never excluded from the mainstream.
Marian was appalled to hear that a male bandleader phoning around
for a bass player hung up when he heard bassist Carline Ray's womanly voice. In contrast, Marian took it upon herself as a duty to acknowledge, encourage and support
other women instrumentalists. When interviewed in 1970, and asked about discrimination
against women musicians, she replied that the opportunity to play in her husband
Jimmy's group meant that she did not have a personal struggle getting started:
When I had my own group, I was able to offer
employment to men. They don't mind working for a woman, as long as it is
a good job - maybe they don't like it as much as working for a man. I don't
know, I've always tried to be careful and diplomatic, but I'm rather cowardly
about throwing my weight around saying 'do this or do that.' I really haven't
noticed that to any great extent, although I feel that possibly if I hadn't
been a leader, if I'd been just some woman musician waiting for the phone
to ring, they would tend to call up a male musician before they would get
around to me. I think that situation's getting better. There are a couple
of women in New York who are
getting a lot of calls and work with a lot of the groups. I suppose I would
too if I hadn't worked with my own group for so many years that I probably
wouldn't go out and work with somebody else. Except I worked with Benny Goodman
for about six months, and that was quite an experience (McPartland to Douglas, 1970).
After that experience, Marian realized
that her true niche was as leader of her own group. When asked if being a leader
lessened or augmented problems of discipline within a group, Marian replied that
she had been lucky to attract players who were not too 'far out'. 'I had one
or two who were pretty far out, but I sort of eased them out' (McPartland to Douglas, 1970).
As
Marian McPartland was consolidating her career, she was increasingly in a
strong position to give exposure to women musicians. She did this by supporting them
at Jazz Festivals, and offering them opportunities on stage. She also gave them coverage through her radio
program Piano Jazz, through her writings about jazz, through interviews
to the media, and latterly through her position as a revered veteran among
women within the jazz community. Marian McPartland, along with pianists
Joanne Brackeen and Renee Rosnes, was interviewed for Piano & Keyboard magazine in 2000 on the subject of jazz and gender. They all envisioned a
day when there would be no need for women's jazz festivals, nor the descriptor
female jazz musician (Bernotas, 2000: 28-36).
One example of Marian McPartland's role
as a trailblazer for women in jazz is her support of Mary Fettig Park. The young alto saxophonist from the San Francisco Bay area first performed with Marian at the inaugural Kansas City
Women's Jazz Festival in 1978. Marian was impressed by her strong, big-toned
and lyrical solos, and invited Mary to guest with the Marian McPartland
Trio on three tunes at the 1979 Concord Jazz Festival. A member of the Stan
Kenton band in her early twenties, Mary Fettig Park gained wider exposure through this recording
with Marian McPartland. She continues to perform and teach. That first Women's
Jazz Festival placed many women musicians in the spotlight, and Mary Fettig Park was only one
of the women Marian McPartland encouraged.
After the Kansas City Festival, Marian invited
other female musicians to join her at the Café Carlyle. They included English
saxophonist Kathy Stobart, young flutist Andrea Brachfeld, tenor saxophonist
Willene Barton, and singer Evelyn McGee, who sang with the celebrated all-woman
band of the '30s and '40s, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm. In 1980, Marian McPartland had been commissioned to write a feature article on this all-woman band, which later appeared in All In Good Time and reprinted in Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All In Good Time (McPartland, 2003).
Leading up to the Kansas City Festival, Marian McPartland spoke of her resolve to bring the lives of women musicians into the spotlight:
I'm not really a women's libber, but I'm interested in the advancement of women musicians. It was rough for me. There was no one to tell me what I was doing wrong. I'd like to get a plug in for the first all-women jazz concert in Kansas City on March 19. I'm preparing an article on women musicians. I'm trying to find the obscure ones, and while I'm down here [New Orleans] I plan to ask a lot of questions. There's considerable interest from young women about how I got started and what are the opportunities (Dodds, 1977: 12).
Marian McPartland continued her research into the lives of unsung or obscure women musicians after the Festival, seeking out and interviewing many women, some long since
retired. In a ripple effect, Marian McPartland's involvement then stimulated
Roz Cron, one-time member of the Sweethearts, to form a 16-piece all-woman
jazz band that included two other members of the original Sweethearts:
Miss McPartland's various ripples have now built
up into such waves - requests to put together all-women groups, following
up on her newly inaugurated career playing classical works, holding clinics
at colleges, as well as fulfilling her bread-and-butter solo and trio engagements
- that she is having difficulty finding the time to finish research for her
book, much less write it. So another ripple has started - she is building
a corps of volunteers to follow up the research leads that she has unearthed
for her book (Wilson, 1979).
The volume of material unearthed by Marian McPartland did not find its way, as she had hoped, into an encyclopedia on the contribution of women musicians. Her commitment to Piano Jazz, from 1978 on, prevented her focusing and concentrating on pulling the interview material into book form. However, several of the articles found their way into her 1987 book All In Good Time, re-printed as the Illinois Edition in 2003, with substantial rewriting and updating, as Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All In Good Time.
Marian McPartland recognizes and welcomes her responsibility
as a prominent woman in jazz, but she is also responsible to her audiences
as a spokesperson for jazz. The history of jazz performers, both male and female, would not
be the same without Marian's strongly-voiced opinions in the very public forums
open to her. Inevitably, the question that was posed back in the 1950s still raises its head in the twenty-first century - 'What is it like to be a woman in a man's world - the world of jazz?' Marian McPartland deals with this question, then and now, as any musician would - 'I'd rather think of myself as a piano player' (Cerulli, 1957: 17).
In 1974, the issue of her gender was raised in another way, pointing out that an Englishwoman superbly playing jazz was 'singular' indeed, but that, somehow, Marian McPartland had 'caught on'. She countered this remark by making her position clear that, as she had chosen to be a bandleader early in her career, she was the boss. She hired and fired male musicians and built up good relationships with them.
At a seminar on Women In Jazz, part of the annual Jazz Week
celebration in Boston, a young professional pianist spoke about how she decided
to become a jazz musician. Like many of her peers, this woman was initially
hesitant about competing in such a male-oriented world. However, she was
inspired to take the chance when she saw Marian McPartland in concert, describing
Marian as appearing 'so confident' (Ullmann, 1979).
Several books on women in jazz, published
since the 1980s, refer to women musicians being inspired by Marian McPartland
as a kind of 'godmother' (Handy, 1981; Placksin, 1982; Unterbrink, 1983; Dahl, 1984; Gourse, 1995).
After interviewing Marian for her 1983 book, Mary Unterbrink wrote:
As for other women musicians, she doesn't feel
she's put herself out that much or done anything she didn't enjoy doing.
'If you're in a position to help someone, you should do it,' she insisted.
'You have a lot of chances to make that phone call, write a letter or do some
little thing. My God, I had so many people help me. I'm just passing it
on' (Unterbrink, 1983: 74).
In 1987, Marian McPartland wrote suggesting
a Women's Jazz Festival in Sydney, Australia, with
herself as leader of an all-women group. She recommended
using either of the drummers Dottie Dodgion or Barbara Merjan, along with bassist
Marlene Rosenberg (McPartland, Letter to Clare Hansson, May 14, 1987).
Marian McPartland has always been keen to promote new
talent, whether male or female. She always had a reputation for encouraging
young bassists and drummers into her trio. In fact, she has a deserved reputation
'as a spotter and encourager of bass and drum talent' (Jones, 1970). Among instrumentalists she has showcased
in her trio are Brian Torff, Ron McClure, Max Wayne, Vinnie Burke, Bob Carter,
Bill Crow, William Britto, Jay Leonhart, Steve La Spina, Eddie Gomez, Michael Moore, Andy
Simpkins, Steve Swallow, James Cox, Rusty Gilder, Albert Stinson, Ben Tucker, Linc Milliman,
Gary Mazzoroppi, Bill Douglass, Lyn Christie, Rufus Reid, Joe Morello, Gus
Johnson, Mel Zelnick, Dave Bailey, Jake Hanna, Eric Nebbia, Mike De Pasqua,
Jimmy Madison, Charles Braugham, Omar Clay, Glenn Davis, Pete La Rocca and Jim Kappes. Many
of these musicians served some sort of apprenticeship with the Marian McPartland
Trio before moving on to work with other leaders like Gerry Mulligan, Dave
Brubeck, or Bill Evans. Her trio has been described as a 'graduate school' for talented musicians.
A partnership in the 1970s with young Cincinnati musicians, bassist
Michael Moore and drummer Jimmy Madison, was particularly valuable
in producing the sound of what Marian referred to as a 'well-oiled' trio (Jones, 1974).
Moore supported her in educational
pursuits as well, when they both undertook five weeks of National Stage Band
Clinics at the Universities of Utah, Washington, Denver and Oklahoma in 1970. 'I like to work with young
players, because there are so many wonderful ones out there,' Marian noted.
Speaking of how she gains a unique preview of jazz's promising young musicians
as the host of Piano Jazz, Marian states:
I think I have had a few of them. I don't know
how young, but a lot of these guys, to me, are very young, like Geoff Keezer,
Benny Green. We've had a guy named Stephen Scott and of course, we've had
all the Marsalis family, a lot of wonderful women players, the violinist Regina
Carter, who is just fabulous, Virginia Mayhew, a saxophone player (Jung, 1999).
As well, young musicians such as Joey
De Francesco, Geri Allen, Renee Rosnes, Peggy Stern, Roberta Piket, Sarah
Jane Cion, LeeAnn Ledgerwood and Lynne Arriale have been guests on Marian McPartland's radio
show, have benefited from the exposure, and have gone on to forge strong careers.
In 1993, Marian McPartland was one of ten pianists who recorded 100 Gold
Fingers for Piano Playhouse. When she could not commit to touring Japan with the others, she recommended Lynne Arriale to take her place, having been impressed when Lynne guested on Piano Jazz in
1990.
For her 1993 recording In My Life, Marian McPartland could have chosen as a guest performer just about anyone in jazz, but instead
she chose an emerging artist, saxophone player Chris Potter, who had not yet recorded an album as a leader.
Marian had heard Potter when he was just fifteen.
Marian urged the young saxophonist to take up jazz music as a career, but Potter's father insisted that the aspiring jazz player finish school before
taking such a step. However, by 1993 the young saxman was beginning to
gain notice for his work with trumpeter Red Rodney and the Mingus Big Band.
The generous exposure given to Chris Potter by Marian McPartland on the 1993
recording date Marian McPartland: In My Life lifted the young player to another plateau. They subsequently recorded together on Fujitsu-25th Concord
Jazz Festival - Silver Anniversary Set.
[Author's note: During this researcher's 2001 visit
to New York, it was interesting
to observe Chris Potter's Piano Jazz interview with Marian McPartland,
where she showcased him as a composer and pianist, as well as a saxophone player.
Potter is now a firmly established jazz player thanks to Marian's recognition
of his emerging talent].
Mention has been made in the media of Marian's support
for another emerging artist, singer/pianist Norah Jones, whose phenomenal
success attracted rave reviews as well as the reverse, a critical backlash, from some jazz journalists. Marian invited Norah as a guest on Piano
Jazz early in 2003, followed by a live Piano Jazz broadcast of
the two women together at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall. This broadcast was a highlight of
the Boston Symphony Orchestra's annual Labor Day weekend jazz festival in
Lenox, Massachusetts in August 2003.
In March 2003, at a packed gala 85th birthday party that honored McPartland at New York's Birdland, Norah Jones, in a room filled with older and even elder jazz luminaries, sang a couple of songs for her friend, the birthday girl. She won rousing ovations from a room full of seasoned musicians ranging from singer Tony Bennett to jazz impresario George Wein.
Another protégé of Marian McPartland's is a jazz aspirant from
Kyrgyzstan in Russia, Eldar
Djangirov. The late jazz enthusiast and patron, Charles McWhorter, came upon
9-year-old Eldar at a jazz festival in Siberia. McWhorter immediately invited Eldar and his parents to come to the United States, so that Eldar could study at
a summer camp in Michigan.
In 1998, the family arrived in Kansas City. During an interview at her home in 1999, Marian McPartland spoke of her collaboration with pianist Billy Taylor to give
this extraordinary jazz prodigy his start in America (Hansson, Interview of Marian McPartland, November 2, 1999).
In April 1999, Marian gave the then 12-year-old national exposure
by inviting him to be her youngest ever guest to play on Piano Jazz. In
February 2000, Eldar was featured on the nationally televised 2000 Grammy
Awards program. Soon after Taylor interviewed Eldar on CBS News Sunday Morning. In May 2000, Eldar
was chosen by Marian McPartland to perform classical and contemporary jazz
works at the second annual series spotlighting exceptional pianists - The
Marian McPartland/Eastman Jazz Series. This event also offered Eldar the
opportunity to perform with Marian, along with two experienced musicians making
up the trio on bass and drums. As a result of his own immersion in jazz and
encouragement from two giants in the field, Eldar won first place over many
older competitors in a jazz piano soloist competition at the Lionel Hampton
Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho, in 2001.
When Eldar formed his own trio, Marian recommended drummer Todd Strait, who had played drums with her in New York City in the 1980s. The Eldar Djangirov Trio has released a small-scale, self-produced album entitled Eldar featuring
standards and original compositions, and one of his most enthusiastic supporters
is Marian McPartland. Her advice to Eldar was not to sign with a record label too early, and to finish his schooling first. Such sage advice is priceless, born of experience dealing with record company executives.
As well as encouraging young musicians,
Marian McPartland also went out of her way to locate older musicians living
in obscurity. She actively sought out pianist/singer Cleo Brown, after she
was listed in Who's Who Of Jazz as 'deceased' (Chilton, 1978: 37):
During the fifties I met Dave Brubeck, and in
one of our many conversations he spoke of his appreciation for the musical
style of Cleo Brown and how she had influenced him. He assumed, as I did,
that she had retired somewhere, but had no idea where she was or if she was
even alive. Then a few years ago I discovered a book about women pianists.
Called Jazzwomen At The Keyboard, it was written by Mary Unterbrink.
To my amazement and delight, she had included an article about Cleo Brown.
I immediately called Mary, who told me Cleo was retired and living in Denver. At that time, I decided I must find Cleo and ask her to be my guest
on Piano Jazz. It took me almost two years, but eventually, with
the help of Theresa Mullen, a friend who lives in Denver, we tracked Cleo Brown to her church (she had become a Seventh Day
Adventist). There, one morning, Theresa handed Cleo a note from me inviting
her to be a guest on Piano Jazz, and asking her to phone me. She called,
and we immediately set up a date in New York for the following month (McPartland, Liner Notes, 1987).
Thanks to the efforts of Marian McPartland,
Cleo Brown was persuaded to travel to New York to appear on Piano Jazz, following which she was the subject
of an article by Whitney Balliett in The New Yorker which appeared
in his book American Singers (Balliett, 1988). According to a 1987 interview, in the
aftermath of that performance and Balliett's account of it, Cleo Brown cut
the album for which Marian McPartland wrote the liner notes:
'If jazz is really sinful, then I hate to think
of where she's going,' said the pianist-author-radio host. 'She still swings
like crazy' (Sachs, 1987).
Back in 1956, Marian McPartland resolved
to devote part of her life as a jazz musician to educating children in schools.
In 1974, it was still reported that many educators were only beginning to work with
children's musical potential. Interviewing Marian McPartland on early music education, a critic wrote:
McPartland has been teaching children since
1958. She stresses the importance of helping children develop their listening
skills, 'the younger the better.' She is currently working with inner-city
children in Washington, D.C., and is pleased with the project's success
thus far. The fact that she is a white English woman creates no problems,
and she enjoys working with the black teachers very much (Brehm, 1974).
For several decades, Marian McPartland
continued to evangelize the cause of jazz at elementary and high schools and
on college campuses:
McPartland admitted she has made no revolutionary
conversions to jazz from the school sessions, but said that following these
school clinics a minimum of ten students would invariably express their new-found
appreciation of jazz to her and follow that initiation with a curiosity about
jazz which she finds most encouraging (Santosuosso, 1981).
Interviewed in 1973, Marian McPartland
referred to her involvement with the National Stage Band Clinics, saying that
she was terribly encouraged by what she was hearing from young people:
The band from Kent State University which appeared at Montreux is
a very good band. Bill Dobbins is an excellent piano player and arranger
and the lead trumpet player Lorman Weitzel is great; and he is only 18. He
came to The Downbeat a few times when I was working there and sat in and
this guy is marvelous. He's got a conception of playing which sounds as if
he's been listening to Bunny Berigan. I told him this and he said, 'Who's
Bunny Berigan?' (Gardner, 1973: 7).
Marian McPartland's crusade to interest
youngsters in jazz also extended to lecturing parents to encourage their children to become musicians if they show talent:
Once discouraged from music by her family, McPartland
seconds the ambition of talented kids, going into schools from time to time
to demonstrate improvisation. Well, I think musicians are a rare breed who
are working at something they really like to do. As far as I'm concerned, it was never
work. It's usually fun. Why can't parents see that?' (Ullmann, 1980: 63).
From her experience of conducting clinics and workshops,
Marian McPartland had singled out pianist Bill Dobbins as a talent to watch, recognizing his potential from the moment she first heard him. He blossomed as a
pianist/arranger and educator, went on to be on the Faculty of the Eastman
School of Music, and was regarded as Alec Wilder's favorite piano player.
Marian McPartland's encouragement to young musicians on college campuses fostered
many young jazz composers:
I find it a stimulating atmosphere around all
these bright young talents. The kids are all writing at these clinics, and
hearing the creative ideas they come up with seems to get me busy writing.
I did a clinic in Oklahoma where [guitarist] Pat Metheny was one of the students,
and I met [pianist] James Williams at a summer clinic in Normal, Illinois,
when he was about 17. We sat at two pianos and just played together. I also
met Lyle Mays at a clinic. What a talented musician! (De Muth, 1981: 18).
She is renowned for 'spotting' new talent
when seeking out Piano Jazz guests. Young pianist, Benny Green, who
performed at Marian's 80th birthday concert in 1998, recalled his interview
on Piano Jazz:
Now I'd never done
any kind of radio interview, let along anything as important as Piano Jazz,
and on the way to the studio I was suddenly hit by a ton of stage fright.
But as soon as I entered the studio, she put me at ease, she made me feel
like I was supposed to be there, put all the weightiness of the occasion out
of the way, allowed us to have a good time together (Teachout, 1998).
A 1980 interview highlighted Marian McPartland's
role as an advocate in the jazz scene:
McPartland shrugs off any reminder of her early
role as a feminist of the keyboard. 'There are many talented women who are
jazz musicians,' she states. 'They're out there; all you have to do is to
be aware of them.' Yet McPartland has taken an active role in educating the
public about women in the jazz world. She assembled a group of female musicians
a few years ago for the PBS jazz series, At The Top, and is currently
writing a book on the contributions of women in jazz.
Men have also benefited from McPartland's guidance.
One discovery, drummer Joe Morello, joined Dave Brubeck after several years with
her trio. 'Joe was an excellent drummer,' she adds. 'He was probably the
best brushwork drummer I've ever heard.' And vocalist Tony Bennett was the
recipient of a McPartland composition 'Twilight World' as well (The Aquarian, April
30-May 7, 1980).
Back in 1974, while rehearsing Alec Wilder's 'Fantasy
For Piano And Wind Ensemble' with Duke University's Jazz
Ensemble, Marian McPartland spoke of her hectic schedule and played down her
accomplishments:
The thing that I found most unusual about Marian
McPartland is that, aside from the major fact that she is an exceptionally
talented jazz pianist, she is not an unusual person; she makes her art look
very easy. She is proud of her achievements, as a musician and as a woman,
all those years 'being my own women's liberation'. For as a successful jazz
musician she certainly proves there is no reason for women to remain apart
from the exciting experiences and opportunities that jazz offers (Brehm, 1974).
Apart from drawing attention to the compositions
of Alec Wilder by performing them and recording an entire album of his tunes,
Marian McPartland played a part in bringing her reluctant friend into the
limelight. In her 2003 book, Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All In Good Time, she wrote:
Alec's large output of classical music will
soon be made more accessible by Gunther Schuller, who is collecting and collating
it, and he will soon have his own company, Margun, to publish it. So much
of Alec's music has been unavailable because of the way he writes pieces and
just tosses them aside. Now through the painstaking work of tuba virtuoso
Harvey Phillips, who has collected Alec's music for years and has now passed
the manuscripts on to Gunther, much of this vast body of sonatas, suites,
and other works will for the first time be available to everybody (McPartland,
2003: 162).
A bio-bibliography has now been compiled
on Wilder's life and work, and Marian McPartland has donated many of the compositions
given to her over the years to the Archive of Margun Music (Dempsey and Prather,
2003). These include 'Ballet For Puppets', 'Gifts To Marian McPartland' (consisting
of 18 tunes), 'Piano Pieces For Marian McPartland' (consisting of 7 pieces),
'Ralph P. Puppydog March', 'Small Fry Suite', 'Pieces For Ellis Larkins' and
'Two Pieces For Two Pianos'. Marian has also contributed documents accumulated
over the years of her friendship with Wilder to be included among items donated
by others in the categories of 'Touch And Thrash', 'Photographic Collection'
and 'Memorabilia'.
In the foreword to her 1987 book, and
reprinted in the updated Illinois edition, James T. Maher has written:
Three strikes? Leonard Feather (long a principled
advocate of women jazz players) had been quite right, yet Marian has prevailed,
doing so with style, with graciousness and generosity, with a joyous exuberance
that resounds in her playing, and with a personal and musical sensitivity
that is abundantly documented in her energetic promotion of other women jazz
musicians, in the depth of feeling revealed in her most reflective moments
at the piano, in her visits to black classrooms to share the heritage of jazz
with the children of its creators (at the same time that she was teaching
white school children about this most American of their musical traditions),
and, finally, in her lustrous writing about her fellow musicians (Maher in McPartland,
2003: x).
In 1979, Marian McPartland stated unequivocally:
I don't feel I have any strikes against me whatsoever.
In fact, life for me is really a ball! (Simon, 1979: 387)
The same jazz writer reported:
[S]he embarked on an intensive teaching schedule,
visiting grammar and high schools, classrooms and clinics in colleges, and
even prisons and detention homes. The enthusiastic responses to her efforts
thrilled her, and she takes pride that her encouragements of self-expression
may have kept some youngsters out of trouble and helped some older and troubled
unfortunates to discover healthy, alternative outlets for their emotions (Simon, 1979: 387).
As part of spreading the gospel of jazz
to those deprived of jazz music in their lives, Marian McPartland has performed
in a number of institutions:
'We were at Fountain House just a while back;
it's a sort of halfway house for mental patients. They were a great audience.
And we perform in a number of prisons, too. We were up at Attica, at Green Haven. They're very appreciative
of anyone who comes there. And a lot of them know quite a bit about music
- they follow it on radio and TV, and they are really up on what's happening.
And they enjoy talking about music.' And they probably don't talk while she's
playing as club audiences are often wont to do (O'Haire, 1983). © New York Daily News, L.P. Reprinted with Permission
At Green Haven, Marian McPartland was
joined by Mickey Roker and Bob Cranshaw in putting on a concert for the inmates.
In the late 1970s, Marian began playing at homes for delinquent youths:
'I don't expect to turn them into model students,
but it helps just to have someone come out and talk to them. Jimmy McPartland
used to say, "If I didn't have the cornet, I'd be in jail." And it was true'
(Dodds, 1977: 12).
Speaking of the experience of taking jazz
music into prisons like Attica
and Riker's Island, Marian
said:
At Attica, they have a good group of musicians, so I brought my band arrangements.
They loved it. They wanted to take 60 choruses on each tune. I keep up correspondence
with some of them. You have to have permission, you know (Dodds, 1977: 12).
During a 1970 interview, Marian McPartland
spoke of her determination to take jazz education to so-called 'slow learners'
who were being denied mainstream educational advantages:
We've had some tremendous experiences with slow
kids, kids who are considered backward, and they put them in a special class,
which to me is a real drag. Then they hide them away from everybody. And
we'd go to the school and I might say, 'Well, I want to play for those special
kids you've got - leave time for them.' And they'd all come in. Usually
I would think that most of these kids are not retarded - they might be slow
for some reason or another, but we'd work awfully hard to get them to forget
any anxiety or conflict that they had, or feeling inferior to the other kids.
You know we would work at just getting them interested or making suggestions,
just anything to get them involved. And once you get them motivated you can
do anything. You can take a book, or get them to read, or quote things, or
paint or draw - it's really an unlimited field (McPartland to Douglas, 1970).
She also spoke of the power of communication
of jazz music in situations where dementia patients or sick children in hospitals
can be reached and invigorated (McPartland to Douglas, 1970).
Further evidence of Marian McPartland's
advocacy is the number of performances and recording sessions she has devoted
to other jazz musicians and composers to memorialize their enormous legacy - particularly Bill Evans,
Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Benny Carter, Alec Wilder, Mary Lou Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Teddi King
and her late husband Jimmy McPartland. Marian McPartland continues to bequeath
her own legacy to all who are prepared to listen and learn. Over thirty years
ago, she said, 'You know, those of us who have something to give should share
it with people on the way up' (The New York Times, August 5, 1973).
Marian McPartland also made it her business
to visit fellow musicians when they were stricken with illness. One was Bud
Powell, and Francis Paudras mentions this in his book Dance Of The Infidel:
A Portrait Of Bud Powell. The film Round Midnight was
based the life of Bud Powell. Paudras mentions that when Powell was first confined
to Creedmore State Hospital, one of
the only three people who came to see him regularly was 'his unconditional
friend, Marian McPartland'.
Marian wrote in 1999 about her concern for the
ailing Dudley Moore:
I'm trying to get in touch with Dudley Moore.
He is getting treatment at the Kessler Institute in New
Jersey, and I'm going to try and track him down and
go over there to visit him. The media keeps pounding away at him, and he
really needs to be cheered up. We are going to re-run one of his Piano
Jazz shows this summer (McPartland, Letter to Clare Hansson, December 12, 1999).
Marian McPartland has shed light generously
on her own pianistic approach, she has enlightened thousands of students, and
readers of her penned articles have been taken into the inner sanctum of jazz. She has highlighted the musical accomplishments of
women, unsung musicians and composers of both sexes, as well as 'underdogs' needing
a nudge. She has illuminated the musical accomplishments and lives of her guests on Piano Jazz,
her long-running radio program.
Through her words and actions, Marian McPartland has demonstrated that she is on the same mission as trumpeter Louis Armstrong,
recognized as 'America's Ambassador Of Jazz'. Marian McPartland once expressed her goal of making audiences
aware of jazz music through her advocacy:
'I want people to be aware that there are alternatives
in music; not everything is Michael Jackson. Most young people aren't even
aware that there is more than just pop music out there. I like to show them
another side to music,' she said (Moses, n.d.).
References
McPartland, M. (2003) Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All In Good Time, Urbana and Chicago: University Of Illinois Press
McPartland,
M. (1975) 'You've Come A Long Way, Baby', in Gillenson, L. W. (ed.) Esquire's World Of Jazz, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, pp. 134-139
Rusch, B. (1980)
'The McPartlands: Interview', Cadence, March, pp. 11-14, 83
Voce, S. (1987)
'Marian McPartland', Jazz Journal International, vol. 40, no. 3, March, pp. 6-9
Albertson,
C. (1994) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland: Plays The Music Of Mary Lou
Williams, Concord Jazz Inc.
Bogle, D. (1994)
'Marian McPartland Plays The Music Of Mary Lou - Dick's Picks', Portland
Skanner, October 5
Holmes, L. D. and Thomson, J. W.
(1986) Jazz Greats: Getting Better With Age, New York: Holmes & Meier
De Muth, J.
(1981) 'Marian McPartland: First Lady Of Jazz Piano', Contemporary Keyboard,
vol. 7, no. 2, February, pp. 16-20
Balliett, W.
(1968) 'The Street', in Such Sweet Thunder, London: Macdonald, pp. 48-56
Feather, L.
(1986) The Jazz Years: Earwitness To An Era, London: Pan Books
Hansson, C. (1999) Written Interview of Barbara Carroll, New York, November 19
Lyons, L. (1983)
The Great Jazz Pianists, New York: Da Capo Press Inc
Douglas, N. (1970) Interview of Marian McPartland, Summer Jazz Clinic, University of Utah, August
Cerulli, D. (1957) 'Marian McP: What's It Like To Be A Woman In Man's Jazz World? It Has Problems', DownBeat, September 19, pp. 17-18
Bernotas, B.
(2000) 'Jazz & Gender', Piano & Keyboard, no. 202, January/February, pp. 28-36
Wilson, J.S. (1979) 'Jazz Festivals Without Jazz Come East', The New York Times, August 24
Ullman, M.
(1979) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland: At The Festival, Concord Jazz Inc
Unterbrink,
M. (1983) Jazz Women At The Keyboard, London: McFarland & Co Inc
McPartland, M. (1987) Letter to Clare Hansson, May 14
Jones, M. (1970) 'Halcyon Days
For Marian', Melody Maker, September 26, p. 12
Jones, M. (1974) 'Crusading McPartland', Melody Maker 49, September 28
Deffaa, C.
(1993) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland: In My Life, Concord Jazz Inc
Jung, F. (1999)
'My Conversation With Marian McPartland', Available: http://www.allaboutjazz.com [January 18, 2000]
Chilton, J. (1978) Who's Who Of Jazz: Storyville To Swing Street, London: Time-Life Records Special Edition
McPartland,
M. (1987) Liner Notes to Cleo Brown: Living In The Afterglow, With Special
Guest Marian McPartland, Audiophile Records
Balliet, W. (1988) American Singers: 27 Portraits In Song, New York: Oxford University Press
Sachs, L. (1987) 'McPartland's Persistence Pays', Chicago Sun-Times, October 1
Brehm, B. (1974)
'McPartland: Woman In The Jazz World'. The Chronicle, April 23
Santosuosso,
E. (1981) 'At Last, Fulfilling Pledge To Parents', The Boston Globe, February 4
Gardner, M. (1973) 'The Jazz Journal Interview: Marian McPartland Talks To
Mark Gardner', Jazz Journal, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 4-7
Ullman, M. (1980) 'Marian McPartland',
in Jazz Lives: Portraits In Words And Pictures, Washington,
D.C.: New Republic Books, pp. 53-63
Teachout, T.
(1998) 'The Grande Dame Of Jazz, But Don't Tell Her That', The New York
Times, March 15, pp. 2, 37
Unknown author
(1980) 'After 40 Years, Improvisation Is Still The Keynote For Jazz Pianist
Marian McPartland', The Aquarian, April 30-May 7
Demsey, D.
and Prather, R. (2003) Alec Wilder: A Bio-Bibliography, Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press
Simon, G. T. and friends (1979) 'Marian McPartland', in The Best Of The Jazz Makers,
New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc, pp. 386-387
O'Haire, P.
(1983) 'Marian McPartland - She's Always In Key', Daily News, May 10
Dodds, R. (1977) 'Marian McPartland: Incongruous Lady', The Times Picayune', September 24
Unknown Author
(1973) 'A Pro Is Inspiring "Gig" At Guild Hall', The New York Times, August
5
Paudras, F. (1998) Dance Of The Infidel: A Portrait Of Bud Powell, New York: Da Capo Press Inc
McPartland, M. (1999) Letter to Clare Hansson, December 12
Moses, P. J.
'Marian McPartland Brings Her Jazz To Area', Unknown source, n.d.
