1970-1972
At the dawn of a new decade, Marian McPartland was newly divorced and had founded her own record company, Halcyon Records. The first release on the label (HAL 100) was entitled Interplay: Marian McPartland. In 1970, she recorded Ambiance: The Marian McPartland Trio with Michael Moore on bass and Jimmy Madison on drums. Interviewed in August 1970, during her third year at the Utah Summer Camp, Marian was asked about the number of fine bass players whose careers had prospered through being a member of her trio. She recalled names like Bill Crow, Eddie Gomez, Ron McClure, Linc Milliman (her bass player on Interplay) and her then current bass player Michael Moore, and played down her unerring instinct for choosing the best bass players. 'I've just been lucky - I don't know, I have a knack for hearing them, and they only have to play a few notes and I immediately know what kind of talent they have' (Douglas, Interview of Marian McPartland, 1970).
When asked about drummers, Marian confessed that she never got over the loss of Joe Morello to Dave Brubeck after his years driving her trio at the Hickory House. 'His playing was so perfect for me. I find a lot of drummers play rather loudly. I guess that's the way the instrument is, and they really don't like to play quietly for the piano player. All these years it's been an unspoken battle between us.'
Asked how she adapts to different sidemen in her trio, Marian responded, 'Maybe it's why I manage to stay in the game as much as I do, because all these young guys coming up, they all have a lot on the ball, and so I learn things from them as well as them learning things from me.' During the Utah Summer Camp, Marian and bassist Moore signed up for a course on arranging along with the students, as well as tutoring in workshops, and performing in evening concerts (McPartland to Douglas, 1970).
Following the camp, Marian McPartland returned to England in September 1970, for television appearances, to visit her family, and to promote Ambiance, her latest album on Halcyon Records. As well, she had concert dates booked in Sweden. During the interview, Marian also revealed future plans to record her husband, Jimmy McPartland, for Halcyon Records, and that she had club dates booked at The Downbeat in New York. She also mentioned her interest in Music Therapy as an educational tool (McPartland to Douglas, 1970).
In January 1971, a series of lunchtime concerts at The Downbeat club, under the auspices of Jazz Adventures Inc, a non-profit organization, began when Marian McPartland and her trio performed with singer Teddi King. Critic John S. Wilson commented on:
Mrs. McPartland's polish and delicacy at the piano. Her gently reflective treatment of 'Here's That Rainy Day' provided an exquisite contrast to the exploratory ideas she worked out on a three-way improvisation with bass and drums that she called 'Superfreakout'. Miss King showed superb control and conception on 'Moonlight In Vermont' (Wilson, 1971: 18).
In April, Marian McPartland performed again in concert with the Westchester Symphony at White Plains High School, White Plains, NY. After the trio played standards and two of Marian's pieces, they offered a medley to salute Duke Ellington. They then combined with the Symphony to perform excellent arrangements by Phil Wilson, an arranger from Berklee College Of Music, including the premiere of a complex new work. Later Jimmy McPartland observed, 'This is the sort of thing Marian should do more often - getting the best out of her classical training and her jazz feeling.' Reviewer Al Fisher agreed that 'it was the first time I had heard jazz and classical come together successfully' (Fisher, 1971).
June 1971 found Marian McPartland with bassist Jay Leonhart at The Cookery relishing free-flowing exchanges between piano and bass. This engagement was significant in terms of her style as The Cookery was situated in an area in which entertainment was limited to the use of stringed instruments and one voice. No drums or wind instruments were allowed, and for some jazz performers these conditions might be restricting:
At The Cookery, with only 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. Because she is an imaginative and adventurous pianist, Mrs. McPartland seems to be relishing this unaccustomed freedom. We're just letting things happen,' she says (Wilson, 1971).
Bassist Rick Petrone also performed with Marian McPartland during 1971 and 1972 at The Cookery and Café Society. His response to a letter published in September 2000 in JazzTimes Magazine inviting recollections about Marian McPartland's career reads as follows:
I would love to contribute some stories about Marian. I was her bassist from 1971-72, and though I never recorded with her, I consider my time spent with her to be the most productive of my career. I spent many months in a duo setting with her at the now defunct Cafe Society in New York and would love to share some moments with you, and your future readers (Petrone, Research Participant).
In August 1971, notice was given of the upcoming Eastman Arrangers 'Holiday' Concert, featuring Alec Wilder's music and performances by Marian McPartland and Eastman singer Esther Satterfield (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 4, 1971). December 1971 reinforced Marian's long connection with Clem De Rosa's College All-Star Band, as they presented a concert in New York's Town Hall which had just replaced one of the worst sound systems in the city with an excellent one. Teething problems occurred when the system picked up a radio signal which interfered with the beats being played on stage. Marian McPartland featured in Act Two, performing challenging arrangements of Phil Wilson's 'Piano Fortress' and Alec Wilder's 'Homework'. The New York Times critic John S. Wilson described 'Piano Fortress' as 'a particularly effective work, developing a vitalizing balance between Mrs. McPartland's strong piano work and a driving band attack' (Wilson, 1971).
Critic Whitney Balliett, in his New York Notes: Journal of Jazz in the Seventies, wrote of Marian McPartland's performance at The Cookery on January 7, 1972:
Marian McPartland, because of the steady widening and sharpening of her skills, has become an irresistible pianist. She does not, in the way of such mandarins as Thelonious Monk and Earl Hines, have a Style; she is a highly compact, highly charged distillation of her contemporaries and of the best pianists who came before her. One can hear in her solos intelligent echoes of Art Tatum and Bud Powell and Red Garland and Bill Evans, and behind them murmurs of Fats Waller and Hines (Balliett, 1977: 5-6).
On February 11, 1972, in the lobby of New York's Town Hall, Marian McPartland performed an hour-long concert with bassist Jay Leonhart in a varied program as part of the '5.45 Interludes' series, made possible by a grant from the New York Council on the Arts. Marian McPartland's approach to programming was a very important element in the quality of these one-hour concerts, wrote John S. Wilson:
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 (Wilson, 1972: 24).
At the time Marian McPartland was Artist-in-Residence in several junior high schools on Long Island.
1973
Marian McPartland's long tenure at the Café Carlyle began when pianist/singer Bobby Short requested her as his vacation replacement Tuesday through Saturday during winter. Interviewed by Daily News prior to her opening, Marian McPartland spoke of her beginnings, how women instrumentalists were once rare in the jazz fraternity, jazz dates in famous venues, and how after her divorce she and Jimmy went their separate ways, with Jimmy then touring with 'Stars of Jazz' being taped by CBS (Fallon, 1973). © New York Daily News, L.P. Reprinted with Permission
As Marian McPartland was a non-singing pianist, the room offered a challenge, but her mixture of familiar tunes with esoteric jazz captured the audience. Critic John S. Wilson wrote that bassist Rusty Gilder and drummer Joe Corsello 'follow very capably in the footsteps of the impressive list of bassists and drummers she has brought to attention during the last 20 years' (Wilson, 1973). Marian McPartland expressed her appreciation of the review, significant in that it was her first appearance filling in for Bobby Short (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, January 5, 1973).
Another review took the interesting approach of comparing a jazz pianist to an architect who rearranges shape and structure. In this interview, journalist Howard Kissel makes reference to Marian being quoted as saying that one of her favorite nightclubs was The Frog And Nightgown in Raleigh, NC. For her performance there in 1973, she ran the musical gamut from jazz standards to original compositions to bossa nova to contemporary pop songs from The Beatles repertoire.
On January 20, 1973, Marian McPartland was honored by a feature article in The New Yorker by Whitney Balliett - 'The Key of D is Daffodil Yellow' - accompanied by a flattering sketch by Thomas B. Allen rather than the usual photograph (Balliett, 1973: 43+).
Soon afterwards, The Star-Ledger featured a photograph of Marian McPartland on the cover with the caption, 'If you're serious about what you're doing, you have to keep yourself together,' followed by an article on her 'jazzy life' (Finston, 1973: 27).
On May 11, 1973, Marian McPartland made another contribution to the '5.45 Interludes At Town Hall' with what must be one of the most wide-ranging repertories in jazz. Although she is known primarily as part of the Bud Powell school of jazz pianists after World War II, Mrs. McPartland applied the long, light, flowing lines with which she constructs her improvisations to tunes from one end of the jazz scale to the other (Wilson, 1973). A Press Release for the series produced by Candace Leeds described her as 'virtually a self-contained jazz industry, leading ensembles, making records and conducting workshops through the Huntington Performing Arts Foundation on Long Island.'
It goes on to describe her style, paraphrasing the words of Whitney Balliett:
Marian McPartland came of age when pianistic giants roamed the earth - Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Bud Powell - and their footsteps still echo dimly in her work. But in the past five years, she has moved beyond them into her own special realm. The New York News recently called her a 'brand new McPartland', as it praised her sonorous and lyric touch, her enriched harmonies and her freer rhythmic conception (Press Release, 1973).
The McPartlands combined to present jazz at the Royal Box of the Americana Hotel on June 9, 1973. With cornettist Jimmy McPartland coming out of the fertile Chicago school in the twenties, saxophonist Buddy Tate from the Kansas City school of the Count Basie orchestra in the late thirties and forties, and Marian McPartland a New York school modernist, they represented three eras of jazz. As well there were two young eclectics - bassist Rusty Gilder and drummer Jackie Williams. There was scope in the program for Marian to show her abilities as both an ensemble pianist in the rhythm section and a perceptive accompanist. The group ranged through 'You Turned The Tables On Me', 'The Girl From Ipanema', 'What's New',''Round Midnight' and 'St. Louis Blues', and they played them with aplomb (Wilson, 1973).
In Whitney Balliett's opinion:
It was not Chicago music or Kansas City music or New York music but lyrical, first-rate jazz. (Needless to say, this un-classifiable music has been categorized, and is frequently referred to as 'mainstream' music) (Balliett, 2000: 393).
Balliett's review of the same artists in concert stated that, although Jimmy McPartland had been having embouchure problems, it was 'a pleasure to hear Bix Beiderbecke's ghost rise up behind every solo. Marian McPartland, long accustomed to the format of a trio, was tight and sharp; she said what she had to say in a chorus or two, and there was none of the cloud-gazing she sometimes engages in' (Balliett, 1977: 87).
On July 1, 1973, a broadsheet announced that a new semi-annual jazz magazine, Journal Of Jazz Studies, would be published by Rutgers University to legitimize jazz within the academy.
On July 3, 1973, when Marian McPartland opened an afternoon concert at the Wollman Rink as part of the annual Newport Jazz Festival (New York), Whitney Balliett evaluated her performance thus:
All Marian McPartland's banners were rippling at the beginning of this afternoon's Wollman concert, and she set down six exuberant numbers from her current repertory, among them a thick-textured, many-tempoed 'Giant Steps', a flashing 'Willow Weep For Me' (runs rising like whales from the bottom of the keyboard and then sounding again), and a caroming 'Royal Garden Blues' (Balliett, 1977: 87).
The same evening a celebration of American songwriting loosely based on Alec Wilder's classic book, American Popular Song, was held in the Philharmonic Hall. Nine soloists, groups, and singers offered about forty songs by Irving Berlin, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Jimmy Van Heusen, Richard Rodgers, and Alec Wilder (Balliett, 2000: 398). According to Balliett, 'Rahsaan Roland Kirk, accompanied by Marian McPartland, Larry Ridley and Al Harewood, did an odd thing to Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. He made luminous songs like "Mood Indigo", "Black Butterfly", and "Satin Doll" sound brooding and savage' (Balliett, 2000: 399).
Another review of this concert heaped praise upon the musicians, the program, and most of all the Newport Festival organizers for building this concert around Alec Wilder's book on the subject of American Popular Song. Called 'A Jazz Salute To American Popular Song', the program featured (among others) Dave Brubeck, Mabel Mercer, Earl Hines, and arrangements as well as a performance by Gerry Mulligan, along with Marian McPartland. Interviewed, Alec Wilder commented upon the mystery (to him) of improvisation:
Improvisation is a miracle to me. It's second nature to jazz men. They can slip into it without any effort at all. I once said to Marian McPartland, 'What on earth did you do in the middle of that piece where the harmony became so enormously complex and the rhythyms became so complex? And she just looked at me and said, 'I don't know what you're talking about' (McCandlish, 1973).
Also on July 6, 1973, another festival event was held in Alice Tully Hall with a youth concert organized by Marian McPartland and music-educator and former drummer, Clem de Rosa. The first three groups were coached by the trumpeter Joe Newman, the bassist Paul West, and the composer Eddie Bonnemere, followed by De Rosa's seventeen-piece All City High School Jazz Orchestra (Balliett, 2000: 402).
In August, the Marian McPartland Trio appeared at the Guild Hall, East Hampton, Long Island, with the young group Petrus, winner of one of three Louis Armstrong awards. Marian's activities on behalf of Petrus, three young musicians from the Eastman School of Music, stem from the obligation she feels towards her art. Previously she had invited the group to sit in at The Cookery, promoting the young players to a jazz audience (The New York Times, August 5, 1973).
1974
In 1974, after Marian McPartland appeared during a season at Michael's Pub, accompanied by Rusty Gilder on bass and Eric Nebbia on drums, critic Nat Hentoff commented on her stylistic development. He opined that when he heard her back in Boston at George Wein's Storyville in the early 1950s, her improvisations were tastefully structured, if not startlingly original. In this write-up, Hentoff referred to Marian's playing as 'cooking! The logic and lucidity of her continually building solos were still there, but now there are also a keenness of imagination and easy, graceful wit that make a McPartland set like a "good read" - you're sorry to see the story end' (Hentoff,1974).
In April 1974, Marian McPartland was scheduled to rehearse Alec Wilder's 'Fantasy For Piano And Wind Ensemble' with the Duke University Wind Ensemble and the Jazz Ensemble at Page Auditorium. Duke's daily paper, The Chronicle, interviewed Marian and Alec Wilder, inviting Wilder to comment on Marian's improvisational skill. He said, 'She plays some amazing things...but she won't remember them. They grow out of the music as she plays, and disappear when the playing is over' (Brehm, 1974).
As the 'Fantasy' was written specially for her, Marian expounded on what she calls 'the Wilder touch.As for a key to Alec's music, I don't know. It's rather elusive with a now-you-hear-it, now-you-don't quality. His music doesn't go where you'd expect it to go. It's just Alec's way and it's different from anything else' (Morrison, 1974).
The article noted that Marian McPartland had opened the night before at The Frog And Nightgown, appearing Monday through Saturday billed as 'England's First Lady Of Jazz' (Morrison, 1974). It was noted also that David Baker, composer and professor of music at Indiana University, had written two orchestral pieces for Marian McPartland.
On June 30, 1974, promoter George Wein presented, for the second time at the Newport Jazz Festival held in New York, an evening of daring programming in the form of unaccompanied jazz piano in Carnegie Hall. Marian was featured with the 'melodists' - Teddy Wilson, Eddie Heywood, Eubie Blake, Jess Stacy, Johnny Guarnieri, Dick Wellstood and Bill Evans. She also served as 'person of ceremonies' for her fellow pianists. Her excursion into Duke Ellington's music was described as opening pianistic avenues that have rarely been explored by other pianists. From 'Clothed Woman' she created 'a richly colored mood piece, filled with idiomatic Ellington breaks and phrases that Mrs. McPartland carried off brilliantly' (Wilson, 1974: 30).
Whitney Balliett regarded Marian's version of this piece as 'striking with its odd mixture of ragtime and atonality' (Balliett, 1977: 172). Marian McPartland put pen to paper to thank critic John S. Wilson for his review:
Thank you for the lovely review of the solo piano concert. It was really nice, getting to work with Jess, after all these years. I just love him, and as for Eubie, he was fabulous as usual (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, July 6, 1974).
According to writer George Kanzler Jr. the first concert in the 'Women Create' series in the William Paterson Public Library in Wayne, New Jersey, in November 1974 was a standing-room only event featuring Marian McPartland:
Solo piano is one of the most challenging formats for the jazz artist. The pianist has no rhythmic support and can never just comp behind another soloist or swing along with an ensemble. The piano IS the rhythm section, the ensemble and the solo line. Technique cannot hide behind a bass and drums, nor can an ability to swing be faked. And repertoire must be chosen with intelligence and care, so as not to become repetitious or boring.
Miss McPartland meets the challenge of playing solo with easy, competent technique, subtle swing, witty intelligence and a delightful sense of surprise and good humor. Sunday she also seemed to respond in kind to the enthusiastic audience and pleasantly intimate swing. 'This library is really on the ball; they have all my albums,' Miss McPartland observed (Kanzler, 1974: 54).
The Paterson Public Library complemented the performance and the theme of the afternoon by displaying all Marian McPartland albums, along with books and pictures depicting women in jazz.
Marian McPartland ended the year with a five-week season at Michael's Pub, this time with bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Joe Cocuzzo. A review of one concert in the main room refers to Marian McPartland as an evangelist spreading the gospel of jazz. 'She spends most of her free time working with young people in the city schools, performing at colleges and doing some teaching. And it is all with the idea of making the younger generation aware of the marvelous contribution some of our own jazz greats have made to the world of music' (O'Haire, 1974: C3). © New York Daily News, L.P. Reprinted with Permission
1975
Marian McPartland was scheduled to inaugurate a live music program in Bemelmans Bar of the Hotel Carlyle in January 1975. However, she was switched instead to the Café Carlyle to play two solo sets before the singing quartet Manhattan Transfer took to the small stage. Marian played to 'a noisy, inattentive audience before the singers' set, but after the partisans departed, Marian McPartland settled in to play a set that indicated the variety that is open to her as an unaccompanied soloist' (Wilson, 1975).
After The New York Times review pointed out the difficulties of playing to noisy patrons interested only in the singers, Carlyle management saw fit to request that Marian choose a Steinway grand piano for the new room. The new bar was created specially for Marian's intimate style and repertoire, and is situated across the hallway from the Café Carlyle where Bobby Short still dispenses high class cabaret. According to jazz critic, Whitney Balliett, the Bemelmans Bar in the Hotel Carlyle was too small for a piano, but the Carlyle superimposed one, and there it sat like a stranded whale.
Marian McPartland was an immediate success when she moved into this bar on March 29, 1975, but it was not easy:
The piano was tired, there was a rudimentary sound system, the bar cash register hummed and crashed, and the patrons, unaware that they were in a mini concert hall, were noisy. The Bemelmans is a small, classic New York bar of the hideaway kind that first appeared in the late thirties and early forties. It has a twelve-stool bar, four horseshoe banquettes, and New York murals by Ludwig Bemelmans, who like to paint nurses herding children across empty city spaces. But Marian McPartland demanded and has finally got a new piano and a proper sound system (Balliett, 1981: 55-56).
Marian McPartland attracted many fans, and 'with a few informal words between tunes, she maintains an easy rapport with the audience. Charming and vivacious, she makes the room come alive with her music' (Sandford, 1975). After Marian McPartland's long residency, pianist Muriel Roberts followed her into Bemelmans Bar, and pianist/vocalist Barbara Carroll has held sway in this intimate room for many years. [This researcher observed Ms Carroll's elegant performance in the bar in November, 1999].
Marian indicated in February 1975, that she and Jimmy McPartland were to open at a club in Syracuse, working with his quartet for two weeks (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, February 13, 1975).
Although Marian missed the telepathic rapport she possessed with her bass players, her high-profile solo gig at The Carlyle led to other opportunities. What Leonard Feather described as an 'enchanting solo piano recital' took place in Los Angeles on March 24, 1975, as part of a chamber jazz concept. Marian played the last of Tom Hatten's Intimate Jazz series at the Mark Taper Forum, drawing the best crowd.
Having followed her career since the 1950s, critic Feather offered the opinion that Marian McPartland had progressed from a competent but derivative British import to a major artist of complete self-assurance:
Ms. McPartland made it abundantly clear why the piano has been a self-sufficient instrument for 200 years. Opening with Duke Ellington's 'Rockin' In Rhythm' she immediately evidenced the power and rhythmic agility of her left hand and the skill with which she uses it sometimes to accompany, more often to complement and correlate with what is going on in the right. Her ballads invariably enrich and expand the harmonic and melodic essence of the theme (Feather, 1975).
In June 1975, Marian McPartland performed in concert with two other pianists, Barry Harris and Ray Bryant, at the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Due to the acumen of impresario Martin Williams, the solo piano concert of the Jazz Heritage series easily surmounted the environmental impediments of stuffed animals and plaster busts. In fact, reviewer Steve Metalitz drew an analogy between the exhibits and the endangered species of 'the creative American musician.' The event was structured in two parts - a free afternoon workshop with the three pianists improvising on selected tunes, followed by a longer evening concert for paying guests. Metalitz offered these comments on Marian McPartland:
She played a marvelous opening set, suffused with the gutsy, resourceful romanticism which makes her not simply one of the greatest female instrumentalists in the history of jazz (that, unfortunately, is damning with faint praise), but also a pianist in the same league with the masters of any age, race or sex.
He concluded that McPartland was the most flexible of the three soloists, handling all moods with energy, grace and aplomb (Metalitz, 1975).
During the twenty-first Newport Jazz Festival, and the fourth Newport Jazz Festival (New York), the music of Bix Beiderbecke, which had been presented by the New York Jazz Repertory Company on April 3, was repeated in concert. According to publicity, 'in this concert Mrs. McPartland played two of Beiderbecke's piano compositions, "In A Mist" and "Candlelights"' (Sandford, 1975).
Whitney Balliett described the event thus:
Dill Jones and Marian McPartland wandered through three of Beiderbecke's curious, circular piano pieces, and for half the evening Bill Rank and Speigle Willcox, Goldkette alumni, joined in (Balliett, 2000: 445).
On July 2, 1975, Marian McPartland and Alec Wilder were masters of ceremonies for a late concert in the Avery Fisher Hall 'looking as if they were stuck in the library on a lovely Saturday afternoon' (Balliett, 2000: 449).
By September 1975, both Bobby Short and Marian McPartland were 'Stompin' At The Carlyle'. Bobby Short was in his sixth year in the Café Carlyle, and Marian was into her second season in Bemelmans Bar. Critic John S. Wilson commented on Marian McPartland's adventurous programming:
Her programs are provocative and interesting because she has access to a lot of special material - her own compositions and the work of Alec Wilder, who has written pieces for her - but also she goes searching in areas that other pianists might not think of.She does not fall back on stylistic clichés. She can scarcely be said to have a 'style' in that sense - but sets each tune in a dramatic framework that almost demands a listener's attention (Wilson, 1975).
After the review of this concert, Marian McPartland penned a letter to Wilson:
Again my thanks for yet another great review! I can't tell you how much this means to me, and I know it has helped not only business in the room but the quality of people coming in is much better- not so many noise makers! (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, October 8, 1975).
1976
In May 1976, the McPartlands, with cornettist Dick Sudhalter, recreated the music of Bix Beiderbecke for the 11th birthday of Jazz Interactions Inc at George Wein's Storyville Club in Boston.
In September 1976, Marian opened her third season at Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle with an evening devoted to the songs of Johnny Mercer, with Michael Moore on bass and singer Teddi King singing the Mercer lyrics. Reviewer John S. Wilson pointed out that although Mercer did compose a few songs, he was primarily a gifted lyricist. Therefore, if Marian played an evening of Mercer songs on piano she would be, in effect, playing the works of Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Henry Mancini and other composers who collaborated with Mercer.
To make it a legitimate Mercer program, Teddi King was the ideal choice according to Wilson, 'because she combines much the same bubbling, rhythmic surface and deep, inner warmth that Mr. Mercer expressed in his lyrics.' Teddi King's imaginative phrasing was underpinned by Marian's perceptive accompaniment, and the evening revealed 'a virtually unknown Mercer gem - his lyrics to Marian's haunting melody "Twilight World", sung brilliantly by Miss King' (Wilson, 1976).
Marian McPartland continued with a series of soirees to complement her piano repertoire during this season at Bemelmans Bar. On October 21, she featured cornettists Jimmy McPartland and Richard Sudhalter, with Gene Bertoncini on guitar and Michael Moore on bass. The atmosphere was captured by Whitney Balliett:
Her playing, often burdened by prolixity and bravura when she is nervous, has become increasingly thoughtful. Her harmonies are orchestral but unsentimental, and her single-note lines cajole and startle. She has discovered a pleasing laissez-faire on the part of The Carlyle and has begun a series of impromptu soirees to which she invites singers and/or players. These have included Carol Sloane, Teddi King, Susannah McCorkle, and Sylvia Sims; the bassist Michael Moore, the cornettists Jimmy McPartland and Richard Sudhalter, and the guitarist Gene Bertoncini (Balliett,1981: 56).
This occasion was one of many improvised by Marian McPartland during her tenure in Bemelmans Bar within the Hotel Carlyle. As she was heading to the Nice Jazz Festival in July 1976, Marian McPartland expressed the hope that The New York Times critic would take time out to listen to her replacement in Bemelmans Bar, Dwike Mitchell:
Please, when Newport is over, will you stop by The Carlyle and hear Dwike Mitchell? Remember Mitchell-Ruff duo? Well, Willie Ruff is building his own record studio in his home town of Killen, Alabama, and Dwike is replacing me in Bemelmans Bar. I have no axe to grind, I just love his playing and he hasn't been on the club scene since we were at the Hickory House and I believe you'd dig him. He's a real piano player - plays the whole keyboard from top to bottom! (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, July 2, 1976).
Marian McPartland was also performing at the El Matador in San Francisco in 1976. At the performance were pianist George Shearing, her compatriot and contemporary, and jazz writer Len Lyons. Shearing commented on Marian's ability to carry any tune solo, a facility born of many years on her own (Lyons, 1983: 169).
Lyons asked Marian about the difficulty of performing without bass and drums. Marian had decided to do some soloing at The Cookery in New York, and worked out techniques that made it easier to convey the rhythmic feeling:
When I was soloing once, somebody paid me the ultimate compliment. He said, 'Oh, my God, your bass line is so good it has hair on it!' I thought about that for a while and decided it must be a compliment (Lyons, 1983: 169).
When asked how the role of the jazz pianist had changed during the three decades she had been performing in the United States, Marian McPartland had this to say:
There's really been a swing back to soloing, as there was in the days of Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller. It has something to do, too, with the way the world is going. Everyone's complaining, but in my part of the music business, it's never been better (Lyons, 1983: 169).
A career as a jazz pianist can have many twists and turns, and Marian McPartland was probably unaware at this stage that her role as a pianist and as a spokesperson for the music was about to expand in ways that would change her professional life for ever.
1977
In March 1977, Marian McPartland staged a surprise seventieth birthday party for her friend and former husband, Jimmy, at the Café Carlyle. She managed to keep Jimmy in the dressing room while some very illustrious guests arrived, such as Willis Conover, Bob and Jean Bach, Gene Shalit, George Shearing, John Lewis, Teddi King, Mabel Mercer. When he entered the Café and 'Happy Birthday' was played, Jimmy strode to the piano and gave Marian a kiss. As he and Marian cut the birthday cake, Jimmy announced, 'I suggest that all married people get divorced and begin treating each other like human beings.' Before the party, Marian decided that rather than celebrate posthumously she would stage the party while Jimmy could still enjoy the moment and his guests.
Marian McPartland opened a three-week engagement at the Hyatt Regency Le Club in New Orleans in September 1977. This marked her first visit to the Crescent City, after touring the United States, Europe, South America and even Japan during her 30 years of playing jazz. She had thought that, as New Orleans was the home of traditional jazz, her style would not be appreciated there. However, as the jazz policy of Le Club included pianist Earl Hines, guitarist Charlie Byrd and pianist/singer Nellie Lutcher, she concluded that the audiences would enjoy a style that was not too far out and not too conservative.
While there she made contact with pianist Ellis Marsalis, who was teaching at the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, and arranged a concert in the Center for 1,000 students from the area. She expressed misgivings about reaching out to such a large number:
It's hard to get intimate with that large a group. I certainly hope to hear some of them play. Ellis has assured me that there are some good players. Once when I was playing for some young students, one told me, 'I didn't know a mother could play so good!' (Dodds, 1977: 11).
1978
1978 was a watershed year for Marian McPartland, when she made her debut as a classical pianist on January 30, 1978, at the Café Carlyle. It would be the first time she had played classical music in public since she was a student at the Guildhall School of Music in London. To fulfil a dream to perform with symphony orchestras rather than continue in the club scene, Marian decided to master the Grieg 'Concerto In A Minor' 'because it is less dangerous than Mozart - and not too many people play it now' (Wilson, 1978).
She found a willing coach in Ada Kopetz-Korf from the Manhattan School of Music, and they performed the Grieg Concerto at the Café Carlyle, with Kopetz-Korf playing the orchestra part. Marian is quoted as saying:
I'm learning so much from doing this. It's made me realize what real musical discipline is. It's made me realize why some classical musicians put down jazz musicians. I've gotten so much out of this already that I want to keep going and learn more things (Wilson, 1978).
With the lyrical and pianistic concerto under her fingers, Marian set a date later in the year to perform the work with the Rochester Symphony, and she rehearsed again in late February with her coach at a free concert in the Chicago Public Library:
Marian McPartland said the piano is enjoying a renaissance. Though she might be considered biased, she can point to the full house at the Chicago Public Library Friday, and for her sets at Rick's Café Americain last week, and the crowd that jammed the library's third-floor concert area, spilling into the stairs that led from the ground floor to the fifth. The Chicago program, opposite the City Symphony Orchestra directed by Leon Stein, was Mrs. McPartland's warm-up to a concert with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra (Idaszak, 1978).
After the Rochester concert, a fan of Marian McPartland wrote the following letter to John S. Wilson, critic, The New York Times:
Your article in Sunday's Times about Marian McPartland was very interesting, especially since I had viewed her quintet on TV just recently. It's fine for her to go to Grieg, but, please, exhort her not to forsake jazz. She is a superb jazz pianist and I'll stand in line for a ticket to her concert any time. Rochester is a long way from New York City so I can't get to her local performances. I wish her well with Grieg, but will associate her with the most stirring jazz interpretations I've ever heard.
(Signed) Marguerite Miller
PS. She has one of the warmest personalities I've ever encountered, on screen or off.
(Miller, Letter to John S. Wilson, January 31, 1978).
Another tryout of the Grieg with a second piano player took place at Bates College in Maine. Marian McPartland's first experience of playing the Grieg with an orchestra was at Potsdam, New York, with the College Orchestra. Marian McPartland also mentioned that, as George Shearing already had the Mozart E-Flat Concerto for two pianos under his fingers, she had a goal of performing that concerto with him in concert (McPartland to Shaw, 1979: 714).
In another article, she also referred to the possibility of a duo-piano concert tour with Shearing. 'I'd like to learn a Mozart work for two pianos. We've had some offers about going on the road. George is interested, and I'd like to try it' (Idaszak, 1978).
In 1978, Marian McPartland lent the weight of her support to the inaugural Women's Jazz Festival in Kansas City, founded by Dianne Gregg and Carole Comer. She appeared from March 17 to 19, 1978, at this Festival as a presenter and performer:
'The women are going to come from all over the country. It will be three days of workshops and jam sessions along with concerts,' she said, adding that one purpose is to show that women can play jazz on drums or sax and not just piano (Idaszak, 1978).
This strengthened her connection with jazz women as individuals and performers, and led to her inviting several of them to join her as guests at the Café Carlyle. From June through July 1978, a series of 'Salute To Jazz Women' concerts occurred at various venues throughout New York. As a prelude to these, Marian McPartland and Marlene VerPlanck presented a program devoted to female songwriters in Bemelmans Bar at the Hotel Carlyle.
According to critic John S. Wilson, 'the most revealing aspect of the evening was that, beyond being a showcase for women both as performers and creators, it resulted in fresh, unhackneyed and varying programming at a consistently high level' (Wilson, 1978).
After the concert, Marian McPartland expressed her appreciation of this review:
Marlene and I were completely bowled over by the beautiful review you gave to our concert last Thursday. It really was fun doing it, and it was interesting to find out how few people realize these songs (and many more that are well known) were written by women. You are always so supportive where my 'projects' are concerned. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Now I'm thinking that perhaps a recording of some of these songs might be a good thing to do. I'll have a little time to work on that this fall, and I think I may do it (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, June 25, 1978).
From July 29 to August 4, 1978, Marian McPartland appeared as part of the Jazz Series at the University of Utah/Snowbird Summer Arts Institute. Others in the Jazz Series were Herbie Mann, Phil Woods, Joe Henderson, Tom Ferguson and Carl Fontana. Publicity for Marian's appearance was as follows:
A woman instrumentalist in jazz is rare enough; but one who has been accepted as the equal of male jazz players is exceptional. But Marian McPartland is considered one of the top jazz musicians in the world, the reigning queen of the piano, and thus one of the few who made it in a field dominated by men.
Long acclaimed for her delicate touch, subtle harmonies and faultless technique, Mrs. McPartland has attracted a large and staunch following all over the country, from her long-time engagement at the now legendary Hickory House in New York, to other clubs. In the past few years she has become virtually a self-contained jazz industry. She leads an ensemble that has been a graduate school for some of the best drummers and bassist in the business. She has also become involved in Music Education in schools and colleges, participating in workshops and clinics helping to motivate and inspire the young jazz musicians of the future (Program Notes, 1978).
During the seventies, Marian McPartland appeared in clubs throughout the United States such as the London House and Rick's Café Americain in Chicago, Blues Alley in Washington, the Monticello Room in Rochester, the Playboy Club in Los Angeles, and The Interlude in Kansas City. Singers Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughan recorded her compositions, and she continued to record for Capitol Records and her own Halcyon label.
Concerts at New York's Town Hall, the famous Carnegie Hall, and the Philharmonic Hall, as well as gigs at Michael's Pub and The Composer, kept her in the public eye, and her summer residency at The Carlyle continued for several seasons. In August 1979, Marian appeared again at The Carlyle as a relaxed counterpoint to the vacationing Bobby Short, with bassist Steve La Spina and drummer Michael DePasqua. The following review highlighted the essence of Marian McPartland's style:
The highlight of her set, undeniably, is 'Send In The Clowns'. Opening with percussive swirls recalling 'Windmills Of Your Mind', drummer DePasqua paves the way for McParland's initial bars, so tender, so exquisite they sift like the sands. She brilliantly underpins the hesitancy and irony of the song with some classical echoes, growing in insistence through the bass' entrance to reinforce the song's surrender (Davis, 1979).
1970s (The Influence Of Alec Wilder):
A constant theme both musically and personally during the 1970s was Marian McPartland's connection with Alec Wilder. Composer, pianist and arranger, Alec Wilder (1907-1980) made a lifelong contribution to American music. During her time at the Hickory House in the 1950s, Marian had noticed the tall man listening intently, pipe in hand, books in the other, dressed in his uniform of worn tweed jacket, gray slacks and loafers.
She had also been impressed by hearing his compositions on V-disc during the war, and was intrigued by the Wilder Octets and their quirky titles, such as, 'Jack, This Is My Husband', 'Her Old Man Was Suspicious', 'The House Detective Registers', 'The Children Met The Train', 'It's Silk, Feel It' and 'Mama Never Dug That Scene'. Marian had also been attracted to Wilder tunes popular in England such as, 'While We're Young' and 'I'll Be Around'.
In 1954, while she was at the Hickory House, Marian McPartland had recorded 'I'll Be Around' in a baroque style with harp and cello for Capitol (Marian McPartland Trio with Strings). Unbeknown to Marian, Alec Wilder had heard and approved of this arrangement and interpretation. Little did she know then that Wilder's role and influence in her career would transform her life in jazz.
During the 1970s, as well as dedicating many tunes to Marian McPartland, Wilder began appearing at venues such The Apartment, and The Rountowner in his birthplace, Rochester, as a fan in the audience, always encouraging, always approving. Marian often referred to him as 'America's greatest unknown song writer', and was steadfast in presenting programs which would change his 'unknown' status (Wilson, 1979).
On March 2, 1979, in the presence of Wilder, Marian McPartland and Marlene VerPlanck devoted a whole program to his music at Michael's Pub. The program was billed as 'Songs By Alec Wilder Were Made To Be Played By Marian McPartland And Sung By Marlene VerPlanck' (Press Release, 1979). Compositions listed were - 'In The Spring Of The Year', 'Trouble Is A Man', 'It's So Peaceful In The Country', 'The Winter Of My Discontent', 'Where Do You Go', 'I See It Now', 'Remember My Child', 'Lovers And Losers', 'Blackberry Winter', 'A Child Is Born', 'While We're Young','I'll be Around', 'Suite For Piano And Bass #2', 'The Baggage Room Blues', 'Who Can I Turn To?', 'Give Me Time', 'Is It Always Like This?', 'Moon And Sand', 'Sleep My Heart', 'Soft As Spring', 'Mimosa And Me' and 'Where Is The One'. They also performed six compositions written especially for Marian McPartland - 'Jazz Waltz For A Friend', 'Homework', 'Where Are The Good Companions?', 'Why?', 'Lullaby For A Lady' and 'Inner Circle'.
Marian's admiration for Wilder's compositions is evident in the quote, 'I've always gravitated towards harmonically intricate tunes with tender, romantic lyrics, and these songs had them' (McPartland, 2003: 153). Although Wilder's music included brass quintets, children's songs and the sly, witty and swinging Octets, he is best known as a writer of popular songs, such as 'While We're Young'.
At Michael's Pub, Marian personalized her part of the program with several pieces dedicated to her - 'Jazz Waltz For A Friend', 'Why?', 'I'll Be Around' and 'Baggage Room Blues'. Singer Marlene VerPlanck ranged through the gentler more intimate requirements of the Wilder songs, such as 'Lovers And Losers', 'Give Me Time', and 'Remember My Child', using 'While We're Young' as her anchor of familiarity. Alec Wilder, once described by Marian McPartland as 'curmudgeonly', was well pleased on this occasion (Wilson, 1979).
As well as Wilder's specially pieces dedicated to Marian McPartland, he also wrote for her the 'Fantasy For Piano And Wind Ensemble' (1974), first performed at Duke University, one of several universities where Wilder was guest composer.
In 1973, Marian McPartland recorded an entire album of Wilder's compositions for her label Halcyon Records - Marian McPartland: Plays The Music Of Alec Wilder, reciprocating his musical respect for her. In 1992, this album was re-released on CD on the Jazz Alliance label. In 2003, Concord Records released it again on CD as one half of a double album, Marian McPartland Contrasts, the other album being Marian And Jimmy McPartland: A Sentimental Journey. Alec Wilder was both a friend and a muse to Marian, encouraging her to compose every day.
Besides being a composer, Alec Wilder was a gifted writer and song analyst, compiling one of the most comprehensive volumes ever dedicated to the Great American Songbook - American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, published in 1972. Described by Marian as 'an aristocratic hobo', he was regarded by many as eccentric, often spending weeks at his pied-a-terre, the Algonquin Hotel, in New York, living out of three suitcases.
He left an unpublished manuscript about his impressions of the Algonquin (Wilder, 1976). He wrote beautifully phrased letters to many of his dearest friends, and actually published a book, Letters I Never Mailed: Clues To A Life (Wilder, 1975). He expressed his appreciation of the deep bond of friendship between himself and Marian McPartland in the following treasured letter Marian keeps with her at all times:
In the event that you respect my judgement, my awareness and my occasional maturity, then believe me when I tell you that you fulfil all those requirements which one secretly demands of anyone whom one loves and respects. You are very talented, you are witty, warm, good, ethical, tolerant, angry, responsible, elegant, stylish, steadfast, idealistic, womanly, understanding, exacting, romantic, demanding, stubborn, sensitive, civilized, courageous, trustworthy and generous - indeed a great example of the potentiality and splendor of humankind at its best (Wilder, Letter to Marian McPartland, ca 1970s).
Marian McPartland's friendship with Alec Wilder would prove to be the catalyst for yet another career pathway to add to her list of musical endeavors. Alec Wilder had appeared on Marian McPartland's popular program on WBAI-FM A Delicate Balance in 1975 as her guest.
In 1976, Marian wrote a feature article on Alec Wilder for DownBeat Magazine, which has been reprinted in her book All in Good Time (1987) and also in the updated Illinois Edition Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All In Good Time. The essay appeared soon after Wilder had helped arrange a TV special, produced by South Carolina Educational Radio And Television, featuring Bobby Short and Mabel Mercer. This program, broadcast nationally by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), encouraged its producers to believe that a radio series featuring Wilder would likewise be successful.
Thus American Popular Song was created, a series later broadcast by National Public Radio. These entertaining and instructive programs involved Wilder interviewing interpreters of popular song, accompanied by a piano player, Loonis McGlohon. The programs included some of the most talented singer in America, and gave rise, in turn, to Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz.
The concept for Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz was born after the forty-program Alec Wilder Series American Popular Song ended in 1978. Wilder, McGlohon, and David Stewart, who worked for the Corporation For Public Broadcasting (CPB), separately urged the executive producer of the program, William Hay, to talk to Marian McPartland about hosting a new series. Marian agreed, and suggested the idea of two grand pianos, with pianists side by side playing and chatting about their lives.
Piano Jazz was launched in 1979, and Marian McPartland would bring the world of jazz piano into the homes of millions of American listeners for more than a quarter of a century, thanks to the recommendation of her friend, Alec Wilder.
Jazz critic Whitney Balliett refers to Marian's feature article on Wilder when he writes, 'She says in a postscript to the piece that Wilder's greatest gift and the most lasting one of all was his music. I'm not sure that Wilder's greatest gift wasn't his complex, brilliant, echoing self. Look at the hole he's left' (Balliett, 1987).
At the end of the decade, Marian McPartland was still devoting her free time to jazz education, writing about jazz, and running her one-woman record company, Halcyon Records, as well as furthering her career as a pianist and leader of her trio. She had performed at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, both as a solo artist and with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and she had again performed with John Lewis at the Monterey Jazz Festival in California. She and her trio had appeared on television with Mike Douglas, Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin, as well as on The Today Show with Barbara Walters.
Critic Leonard Feather surveyed 'Piano Giants Of Jazz' for Contemporary Keyboard in December 1979. A surprising omission from his survey is Marian McPartland, despite her achievements in that decade. He focused instead on changes in piano styles and sounds, the internationalization of the jazz piano scene, more recent arrivals such as modernist Joanne Brackeen, and two pianists dedicated to fusion and freedom music, Patrice Rushen and Carla Bley (Feather, 1979: 82). There surely was a place for Marian McPartland among those 'who had reached a plateau of fame in earlier years and who continue today to make welcome contributions.' Feather, although known to champion female musicians, lists eight male pianists in this category.
References
Douglas, N. (1970) Interview of Marian McPartland, Summer Jazz Clinic, University of Utah, August
Wilson, J. S. (1971) 'Lunchtime Series Strikes Jazz Note', The New York Times, January 9, p. 8
Fisher, A. (1971) 'Caught In The Act', DownBeat, April 29
Wilson, J. S. (1971) 'Marian M'Partland [sic] Shows A New Style', The New York Times, June 17
Hansson, C. (2000) Letter in Jazz Journal International, September
Petrone, R. (2000) Email Response to Letter in JazzTimes Magazine
Unknown author (1971) 'A "Holiday" Tribute To Alec Wilder, Rochester Democrat And Chronicle, August 4
Wilson, J. S. (1971) 'McPartland Piano And All-Star Band Join At Town Hall', The New York Times, December 16
Balliett, W. (1977) New York Notes: A Journal Of Jazz In The Seventies, New York: Da Capo Press Inc
Wilson, J. S. (1972) 'Marian McPartland Offers Jazz Variety At Piano', The New York Times, February 11, p. 24
Wilson, J. S. (1973) 'Marian McPartland Is Playing At Carlyle,' The New York Times, January 5
McPartland, M. (1973) Letter to John S. Wilson, January 5
Fallon, B. (1973) 'Pianist McPartland Gives Jazz Fraternity A Run For Its Money', New York Daily News, January 18
Balliett, W. (1973) 'The Key Of D Is Daffodil Yellow', The New Yorker, January 20, pp. 43+
Finston, M. (1973) 'Marian McPartland Leads A Jazzy Life At The Keyboard', The Star Ledger, January 26, p. 27
Wilson, J. S. (1973) 'Marian McPartland Displays Repertory', The New York Times, May 11
Press Release (1973) '5.45 Interludes', May 9
Wilson, J. S. (1973) '3 Eras Of Jazz Played By McPartland Quintet', The New York Times, May 8
Balliett, W. (2000) Collected Works: A Journal Of Jazz, 1954-2000, New York: St. Martin's Press
McCandlish, P. (1973) 'A Jazz Night Of Song That Did It By The Book', The New York Times, July 6
Unknown author (1973) 'A Pro Is Inspiring "Gig" At Guild Hall', The New York Times, August 5
Gardner, M. (1973) 'The Jazz Journal Interview: Marian McPartland Talks To Mark Gardner', Jazz Journal, vol. 26, no 4, p. 4 - 7
Hentoff, N. (1974) 'Marian McPartland', Village Voice, January
Brehm, B. (1974) 'McPartland: Woman In The Jazz World', The Chronicle, April 23
Morrison, B. (1974) 'Jazz Star Envies That Wilder Touch', The News And Observer, April 21
Wilson, J. S. (1974) 'Return Of Unaccompanied Pianists', The New York Times, July 2, p. 30
McPartland, M. (1974) Letter to John S. Wilson, July 6
Kanzler Jr, G. (1974) 'Marian's Ingenuity Sends A Hush Through Library', The Star Ledger, November 6, p. 54
O'Haire, P. (1974) 'Marian And Her Piano A Best Buy At The Pub', New York Daily News, November 9, p. C3
Wilson, J. S. (1975) 'Marion [sic] McPartland Heard At Carlyle', The New York Times, January 13
Balliett, W. (1981) Night Creature: A Journal Of Jazz, 1975-1980, New York: Oxford University Press
Sanford, H. (1975) 'The Piano Artistry Of Marian McPartland', Press Release
McPartland, M. (1975) Letter to John S. Wilson, February 13
Feather, L. (1975) 'McPartland's Piano As Solo Instrument', Los Angeles Times, March 26
Metalitz, S. (1975) 'Marian McPartland/Barry Harris/Ray Bryant', DownBeat, vol. 32, no. 11, June 5, pp. 2, 41
Wilson, J. S. (1975) 'Miss McPartland, Bobby Short Are Both Stompin' At The Carlyle', The New York Times, September 28
McPartland, M. (1975) Letter to John S. Wilson, October 8
Palmer, R. (1976) 'Around The Clock With Jazz Interactions', The New York Times, May 21
Wilson, J. S. (1976) 'Music: Marian McPartland, Aided By Teddi King', The New York Times, September 17
McPartland, M. (1976) Letter To John S. Wilson, July 2
Lyons, L. (1983) The Great Jazz Pianists, New York: Da Capo Press Inc
Dodds, R. (1977) 'Marian McPartland: Incongruous Lady', The Times Picayune, September 24, pp. 11-12
Wilson, J. S. (1978) 'How Marian McPartland Got From Garner To Grieg', The New York Times, January 28
Idaszak, J. (1978) 'McPartland On The Road To Classics', Chicago Sun Times, February 26
Miller, M. (1978) Letter to John S. Wilson, January 31
Shaw, G. (1979) 'Relationships Between Experiential Factors And Percepts Of Selected Professional Musicians In The United states Who Are Adept At Jazz Improvisation', Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Oklahoma (Interview of Marian McPartland, pp. 691-716)
Wilson, J. S. (1979) Unknown title, The New York Times, August 13
Wilson, J. S. (1978) 'A Salute To Jazz Women', The New York Times, June 24
McPartland, M. (1978) Letter To John S. Wilson, June 25
Program notes (1978) Snowbird Festival, University of Utah
Nutile, T. (1979) 'Marian McPartland Challenges Male-Dominated Image Of Jazz', The Courier News, May 8. B7, B11
Wilson, J. S. (1979) 'Jazz Festivals Without Jazz Come East', The New York Times, August 24
Davis, C. (1979) 'McPartland In Short Stay', New York Post, August 2
McPartland, M. (1987) All In Good Time, New York: Oxford University Press
McPartland, M. (2003) Marian McPartland's Jazz World: All In Good Time, Urbana and Chicago: University Of Illinois Press
Wilson, J. S. (1979) 'Jazz: Marian McPartland', The New York Times, March 1
Press Release - Alec Wilder Tribute Concert
Demsey, D. and Prather, R. (2003) Alec Wilder: A Bio-Bibliography, Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press
Unknown author (1971) 'A "Holiday" Tribute To Alec Wilder', Rochester Democrat And Chronicle, August 4
Wilder, A. (1972) American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, New York: Oxford University Press
Wilder, A. (1976) The Elegant Refuge: Memoir Of A Life At The Algonquin Hotel, (unpublished)
Balliett, W. (1973) 'President Of The Derriere Garde', The New Yorker 49, July 9
Balliett, W. (1974) Alec Wilder And His Friends: The Words And Sounds Of., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
Wilson, J. S. (1974) 'Marian McPartland Plays Alec Wilder', High Fidelity, March
Jones, M. (1974) 'Crusading McPartland', Melody Maker 49, September 28
Smith, C. (1975) 'McPartland Record A Real Treat', Rochester Democrat And Chronicle, April 21
Wilder, A. (1975) Letters I Never Mailed: Clues To A Life, Boston: Little, Brown
McPartland, M. (1976) 'Alec Wilder: The Compleat Composer', DownBeat 43, October 21, pp. 16-17, 49-50
Sudhalter, R. M. (1979) 'Wilder's Songs Are A Treasure', New York Post, March 2
Balliett, W. (1992) 'President Of The Derriere Garde', Instrumentalist 46, February (Alternative title - 'Alec Wilder Remembered' by Whitney Balliett © The Instrumentalist Publishing Co., reprinted with permission from The Instrumentalist (No text quoted from this publication)
Wilder, A. (ca 1970) Letter To Marian McPartland, Personal correspondence
Press Clipping (1975) 'Radio', Unknown source - possibly Newsday
Stewart, D. (1999) 'Marian McPartland: Still Going Full Tilt', Available: http://www.current.org [May 15, 2004]
Balliett, W. (1987) 'Jazz', The New Yorker, December 28, pp. 90-91
Feather, L. (1979) 'Piano Giants Of Jazz: Jazz Piano In The 70s', Contemporary Keyboard, December, vol. 3, no. 2, p. 82
