So Many Stars
To read reviews of Marian McPartland’s jazz life is to participate in jazz history. From entertaining troops during World War II, she moved to the United States with her musician husband and into the world of traditional jazz in Chicago in 1946. However, at the same time in the musical melting pot of New York, bebop was letting loose a whole new style. Like a sponge, Marian absorbed all the sounds around her. After some early trio experience, she formed her own trio in New York for the Hickory House engagement in 1952, expecting it to last two months, but that initial booking stretched to twelve months, and subsequently to eight years.
Marian McPartland succeeded in developing her own repertoire by playing the compositions of other musicians who came along to the Hickory House, and coming up with tasty and tight arrangements of standards. So much was going on around her in New York with music bursting out of every club in the vicinity of 52nd Street. She forged her own unique style by drawing from all these influences, all the while keeping her approach fresh and contemporary. It has been noted that Marian McPartland’s personal approach to voicing ballads may have influenced an entire generation of jazz pianists.
Reviews Of Performances:
The Hickory House, New York, Christmas, 1950s
Despite the traditional slump which plagues the entertainment world at Christmas time, the Hickory House on New York’s 52nd Street was almost full one midnight last week. Even the big familiar figure of Duke Ellington could be seen. The occasion was nothing special like an opening night, just another evening of music by British-born Marian McPartland, one of the few women pianists enjoying the respect of that closed community known as the world of jazz. ‘I don’t think I have found a style, ’she observes candidly. ‘I don’t know if I ever will, but I’m trying’ (Unknown author, Newsweek, n.d.).
The Playback, New Haven, Connecticut, November 5, 1961
The occasion was a get-together of three musicians who had never played as a trio before. Marian McPartland was the pianist and guest star. To these ears, Miss McPartland never played better. Combining such seemingly disparate elements as Debussy-like chords with a real, old-fashioned, down-home beat, she explored jazz harmonically and rhythmically with complete confidence. This trio played with a fluent freedom that flows only from a combination of musical and personal exhilaration (George T. Simon, ‘A Brushed-In Beat For Swinging Trio’, The New York Herald Tribune).
The Apartment, New York, April 25, 1966
There is always something to hear in a Marian McPartland trio. Her trios have always played music of high order. In good measure, this has been the result of her skill in choosing superb sidemen. The leader herself has not been immune to the influence of her many sideman. Her playing has evolved from its 1946 schizoid state of half bop and half swing into a predominantly Bill Evans-ish mode. But she has retained what she’s always had: musical understanding (and not every musician has that) (Don DeMichael, ‘Marian McPartland’, Unknown Source).
Park Plaza’s Plaza Room, Toronto, August 23, 1966
This is one of the McPartland’s semi-regular appearances together...Marian’s piano is something nice to hear. But in contrast to Earl Hines’ sound, Marian's seemed more free-form in its improvisations. More quicksilvery in its touch, more intellectual in its approach, and slightly innocuous in its end result (Arthur Zeldin, ‘The McPartlands’, Toronto Daily Star).
The Cookery, New York, June 17, 1971
The Cookery, which is at University Place and Eighth Street, is in one of those areas in which entertainment is limited to the use of stringed instruments and one voice. Mrs. McPartland is usually heard as part of a trio that includes bass and drums. At The Cookery, with only a bassist, Jay Leonhart, accompanying her, the demands on her are much greater than they otherwise would be, a situation that emphasizes the depth and range of her resources. Mrs. McPartland and Mr. Leonhart are finding a lot of fresh ideas in the things that happen (John S. Wilson, ‘M'Partland [sic] Shows A New Style’, The New York Times).
Town Hall, New York, February 11, 1972
On Wednesday afternoon Marian McPartland, the jazz pianist, gave a program accompanied by Jay Leonhart on bass. But the high point of her program came when she put an old jazz standard, ‘Royal Garden Blues’, through a series of paces that were, in effect, a thumbnail history of jazz styles. She took it from basic ragtime to very modern harmonies, throwing in some bebop and some stride piano, shaping the whole concept into an exhilarating performance (John S. Wilson, ‘Marian McPartland Offers Jazz Variety At Piano’, The New York Times).
Café Carlyle, New York, January 5, 1973
Miss McPartland is a non-singing pianist, whose playing often involves subtleties that would pass unnoticed in a noisy room. Yet she seems to have adapted to the situation very effectively and even to have gained from it. She is giving up nothing of her own piano style, and, drawing on showmanly resources that might not be demonstrated to such good advantage in other circumstances, she is offering an unusually strong and well-rounded presentation of her own talents (John S. Wilson, ‘Marian McPartland Is Playing At The Carlyle’, The New York Times).
Michael’s Pub, New York, January, 1974
Recently, at Michael’s Pub, I heard Marian again for the first time in some six or seven years. She was, as they used to say in the 1950s, cooking! The logic and lucidity of her continually building solos were still there, but now there are also a keenness of imagination and an easy, graceful wit that make a McPartland set like a ”good read”, you’re sorry to see the story end. As for her swinging, by the way, Marian’s beat is deeper and stronger than it used to be and she has learned, like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s, to play with time.
Marian's selection of material is as sure as ever, for instance, ‘What’s New’ (the song that Billy Butterfield used to own), ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’, ‘Yardbird Suite’, ‘Send In The Clowns’ and a ‘Royal Garden Blues’ laced with decidedly modern chords but retaining the high-stepping spirit of that flagwaver first taught Marian by her ‘dear friend’ James McPartland. In the middle of one tune, Marian suddenly broke out a chorus of vintage rent-party stride piano, a style I had never heard her play before. ‘I like to surprise people who think they know my playing,’ she said later (Nat Hentoff, Village Voice).
Paterson Public Library, New Jersey, November 6, 1974
Miss McPartland was most impressive in her performances of Duke Ellington compositions, especially the rarely heard ‘Clothed Woman’. Duke should have played it more. Miss McPartland's Ellington choices, like her entire program, were a judicious mixture of the surprising and the familiar (George Kanzler, Jr., ‘Marian’s Ingenuity Sends A Hush Through Library’, The Star-Ledger).
Mark Taper Forum, Tom Hatten’s Intimate Jazz Series, March 26, 1975
Though there were a few moments when a rhythm section was conspicuous by its absence, Ms. McPartland made it abundantly clear why the piano has been a self-sufficient instrument for 200 years. Her ballads invariably enrich and expand the harmonic and melodic essence of any theme. Marian McPartland has progressed over the years from a competent but derivative British import to a major artist of complete self-assurance (Leonard Feather, ‘McPartland’s Piano As Solo Instrument’, Los Angeles Times).
The Café Carlyle, New York, July 7, 1981
The music of Ornette Coleman, which shocked the jazz world 20 years ago and is still too extreme for the main body of jazz followers, has arrived in a most unlikely setting, the Café Carlyle, the home base of Bobby Short. It is not surprising that it is Miss McPartland who is introducing Mr. Coleman’s music to Carlyle audiences. She has always been a moving force in breaking new ground in jazz. But she is a very astute pioneer. When she does something new, something different, she makes sure that it does not seem too different (John S. Wilson, ‘Cabaret: Marian McPartland’, The New York Times).
The Café Carlyle, New York, August 27, 1982
Two years ago, the pianist Marian McPartland recorded a lovely low-key album of Leonard Bernstein’s show tunes. Mr. Bernstein’s richly chromatic tunes are splendid vehicles for Miss McPartland’s serene, mutedly romantic style, and at Wednesday’s early show she and the bassist Steve LaSpina translated some of the composer’s more florid melodies into a flowing, intimate chamber music.
Where other pianists would be tempted to embellish Mr. Bernstein’s tunes with virtuosic frills, Miss McPartland’s approach was straightforward and spare. ‘Tonight’ was done with a sprightly sparkle, the phrases broken by short feathery runs (Stephen Holden, ‘Piano: Miss McPartland’, The New York Times).
Fat Tuesday’s, New York, November 1, 1984
At Fat Tuesday’s, where she is appearing through Sunday Nov. 4, Mrs. McPartland is still a traditionalist of sorts even though her programs touch on most of the post-Dixieland aspects of jazz. Mrs. McPartland invests them with jazz colors and spirit without dismissing the melodic quality that gives them their identity. At the same time, she shows a clean, uncluttered approach to the virtuosic demands of be-bop in her airy and lively treatment of Charlie Parker’s ‘Au Privave’ and makes a rollicking, swinging gem out of what she aptly calls the ‘raggedy’ lines of Ornette Coleman’s ‘Ramblin’’ (John S. Wilson, ‘Cabaret: McPartland', The New York Times).
Weill Recital Hall, New York, July 2, 1988
The spirit of her close friend, the late Alec Wilder, seemed to infuse the pianism of Marian McPartland during her solo concert at Weill Recital Hall on Thursday afternoon. Like Mr. Wilder, Miss McPartland is a musician who does not find jazz incompatible with semiclassical instrumental music of a wistful impressionistic sort. Pieces like ‘It Never Entered My Mind’, arranged as a concert miniature that echoed Eric Satie, Chick Corea’s Chopinesque ‘Windows’, and her amblingly bucolic ‘Willow Creek’ left her free to reflect pleasantly in a semiformal lyrical style (Stephen Holden, ’Jazz Recital With A Touch Of Semiclassical’, The New York Times).
Weill Recital Hall, New York, Unknown Date
Marian McPartland’s pianism is characterized by two strikingly different qualities…one is an English sense of reserve and deliberation; the other an ingrained romanticism that looks back to turn-of-the-century French composers like Gabriel Faure. The pianist, who opened the JVC Jazz Festival’s series of 5 p.m. piano concerts at Weill Recital Hall on Friday, balanced those two impulses with her characteristic mixture of practicality and open-heartedness. She brought to his songs a special elegiac tenderness (Stephen Holden, ‘Marian McPartland’s Piano’, The New York Times).
Kilbourn Hall, Rochester, NY, November 9, 1988
With pianist Marian McPartland as last evening’s star billing, Kilbourn Hall had an undoubted classic. With a nearly 50-year career to her credit, McPartland has become piano jazz’s senior stateswoman. And once her fingers began to caress the keys, with support from bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Todd Strait, friendly musical tales were told and embroidered. The biggest representation went to Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington’s arranger, who’s featured on one of McPartland’s recent recordings (Scott Cantrell, ‘McPartland Brings Fresh Jazz To Kilbourn’, Rochester Times Union).
Fox Theatre, Portland, Oregon, November 9, 1991
As Marian McPartland and Billy Taylor filled the Fox Theatre with a flowing stream of clear, seamless jazz from two grand pianos, it was clear that Portland Arts and Lectures had chosen the right artists to open Jazz Arts, its new concert series, on Thursday night. McPartland and Taylor have done more than perhaps any other jazz artists to bring the music to a wider audience, and they were a natural bridge from the lecture series to the concert format planned for future Jazz Arts performances.
McPartland’s Piano Jazz is carried on more public radio stations than any other music program. And Taylor has carried jazz to just about every format in the country, from concerts with symphony orchestras to his Jazzmobile on New York streets. He’s best known, however, as the host of National Public Radio’s Jazz Alive and as arts correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning where he shares his love and affection for jazz greats as well as his scholarly knowledge of them.
Taylor has been so much identified with that role, in fact, that his superb skills as a player are sometimes overlooked, as are the self-effacing McPartland’s. Both dispelled any doubts in that area with their crowd-pleasing performances for the full house. And in the process they demonstrated how much the city needs this kind of concert during winters almost barren of such acts.
Addressing the audience in her familiar, frail voice, McPartland filled her part of the program with tunes from the golden age of jazz that drew sighs of recognition from the crowd. Looking grandmotherly in a red chiffon dress, the British-born pianist’s elegant touch and assured sense of time revealed unexpected pleasures in familiar terrain.
While both players displayed the sweet singing grace of mastery, Taylor’s performance transformed the scholarly jazz spokesman into a keyboard giant. Like McPartland, Taylor too can plumb the orchestral depths of the grand piano. But his formative jazz years were spent with bebop pioneers during the revolutionary 1940s. As a result, his creations evoked the spacious, rhapsodic horizons of the New World, while McPartland’s resembled the cozy joys of an English garden.
An expansive stylist given to adventurous harmonies and bold dissonance, Taylor spun complex castles of sound full of lush beauty and spirited rhythm that ranged from his rolling, gospel hymn ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free' to 'There'll Never Be Another You’.
But when the duo closed with the kind of duets that have animated Piano Jazz, their rapport and mutual admiration easily spanned their differences (Lynn Darroch, ‘McPartland, Taylor Perfect Openers For Jazz Arts Series', The Oregonian). [Reprinted in its entirety with permission from the reviewer]
Tavern On The Green, New York, March 7, 1994
Marian McPartland is an important jazz figure not so much for her piano-playing as for her articulate advocacy of the form. And Ms. McPartland can play, if in a restrained way: she has a nice touch, drawing smooth, pure tones out of the instrument. She keeps her improvisations short, down to two or three choruses. And she’s interested in harmony, she regularly draped chords and scales over a tune’s harmony, wringing out meaning and texture (Peter Watrous, ‘A Spokeswoman For Jazz Who Can Play It, Too’, The New York Times).
Merkin Concert Hall, New York, January 18, 1997
Marian McPartland has spent time with most of the major jazz piano styles in her 50-year career, but today her music sounds laconic, Northeastern and bop-derived. Sharing a Monday night bill at Merkin Concert Hall with the rarely heard pianist Donald Brown, she played a light and well-paced half, accompanied confidently by the bassist Christian McBride (Ben Ratliff, ‘Displaying Jazz Contrasts, Northeastern and Southern’, The New York Times).
Yoshi’s World Class Jazz House, Oakland, California, 1999
In honor of the Ellington Centennial, Marian [McPartland] performed a selection of Duke and Billy Strayhorn’s [compositions]. The audience requested several numbers and she selected ‘Take The A Train’ and ‘Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most’ and wrapped them all up into one unique kaleidoscope that included more Ellington vignettes. She has that art of making it all sound so easy…it just pours out of her - flowing, natural, well-matured and rich (Suzi Price, ‘Marian McPartland’, www.jazzreview.com).
The Bakery, Los Angeles, November 15, 2002
On Monday night at the Jazz Bakery, the veteran jazz artist, who will celebrate her 85th birthday in March, offered a program as vibrant and alive as anything she’s done over the course of her nearly seven-decade career. Her hands - despite her sardonic reference to arthritis - moved with smooth precision across the keyboard, easily shifting from rhapsodic arpeggios to brightly swinging bebop lines. In every piece, her soloing was enriched by a sophisticated sense of chordal harmony, bringing unexpected musical density to even the most familiar melodies (Don Heckman, ‘McPartland Displays An Ageless Agility’, www.latimes.com).
Marian McPartland's 85th Birthday Bash Brought Out The Stars To Birdland on March 21st, 2003
Celebrating her 85th birthday, the indefatigable McPartland was onstage for the majority of the evening performing in duo, quartets and larger ensembles with many of her special guests. Marian McPartland's 25 years at Piano Jazz on NPR and 25 years at Concord Records cap her 65 years in the music business. From the strength, humor and passion in her performance at Birdland on Friday night, it is obvious that the great artist has what it takes to keep jazz real for many years to come (Michele Robins, Acoustic Jazz, KJZZ 91.5 FM).
Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama, February 27, 2004
Still going strong at 85, Marian McPartland hardly coasts her way through a concert, playing a predictable set. Two favorite collaborators from Chicago, bassist Jim Cox and drummer Charles Braugham, accompanied her during her concert at the Von Braun Center Concert Hall in Huntsville, Alabama. Marian McPartland's drive, technique, wit and enthusiasm to go on the road to play for an appreciative audience signals that she's planning to stay active on the jazz scene for a long time to come (Ken Dryden, 'Marian McPartland in Huntsville, Alabama, February 27, 2004', http://www.allaboutjazz.com).
The Colony, Palm Beach, Florida, December 6, 2004
An enthusiastic audience received jazz royal Marian McPartland Friday evening at the Royal Room of The Colony. After more than 70 years entertaining and educating audiences worldwide, McPartland has earned her title of 'First Lady Of Piano Jazz', bestowed on her by Newsday, and her membership in the International Association of Jazz Educators’ Hall of Fame for her dedication to music education in the public schools (Jeanne Tarrant, 'Jazz Pianist Tickles Keys, Audience', Daily News).
