Background To The Show
In 1976, Marian McPartland wrote an essay about her friend, composer Alec Wilder, entitled 'Alec Wilder: The Compleat Composer'. This was written soon after Wilder had helped to arrange a television special produced by South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV), featuring singers Mabel Mercer and Bobby Short. This program was shown nationally by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and its success encouraged the producers to consider a radio series featuring Wilder as host. Thus the program American Popular Song, based on Wilder's book of the same name, was created, and was later distributed by National Public Radio (NPR).
According to Marian McPartland, ‘NPR used the book as a vehicle for all kinds of singers to sing his and other music, and he and the guest would talk about it, and that made a very interesting radio show' (Voce, 1987). In fact, the program American Popular Song was so popular with listeners that it was presented with a George Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. However, in 1978 the show came to an end after forty programs, and National Public Radio needed another program to succeed it, something ‘esoteric and educational'.
Alec Wilder had in mind that his friend Marian McPartland, experienced already in the medium of radio, would be the ideal choice to host a new series centered around the grand piano. Marian was not only well-known as a pianist, but as an artist whose preferred instrument was a Baldwin piano. Wilder wrote a persuasive letter detailing his concept to William Hay, head of South Carolina's eight-station public radio network and the executive producer of American Popular Song.
David Stewart, then working for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), also played a small role in recommending Marian McPartland for the new series. After attending a recording of one of the Wilder programs featuring Bobby Short, he had dropped by the Carlyle Hotel's Bemelmans Bar where Marian was playing. Seated near her, reading and writing letters, was Alec Wilder, and the close proximity of these two people suggested to Stewart the idea of a piano jazz series. He later wrote to Marian, indicating that he might be able to find some initial support from CPB and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the project if Marian was interested. Loonis McGlohon, pianist for the Wilder series and good friend of Marian's, also urged such a series (Stewart, 1999).
With all these ideas floating around, radio producer William Hay also called in to the Hotel Carlyle where Marian McPartland was playing to sound her out about a thirteen-week series to be distributed on NPR. Marian later told an interviewer:
Alec Wilder, who had a series of music shows himself, recommended me to NPR. They wanted to do something on jazz that was varied instrumentally. But I thought about it and came back to them with the idea that I wanted to concentrate on just the piano (Lyons, 1983: 174).
Marian McPartland agreed to host the series, all the while insisting that the format should involve two pianists conversing and playing on two grand pianos, and the NPR executives finally agreed:
I was asked to do it by ETV in Columbia, South Carolina, which produced Alec Wilder's show, American Popular Song. Because it was very successful… I think that Steve Rathe of NPR and Bill Hay and Dick Phipps of ETV decided to discuss doing a show with me. We all agreed it should feature pianists, with the guests playing solos and, if they were so inclined, duets with me (De Muth, 1981).
From an educational point of view, the piano ‘provides a timeless barometer on which notions of harmony, melody, rhythm, composition, improvisation, even perceptions of structure in general, register' (Keyboard, March, 1992). By taking that idea further, and engaging her guests in conversations about their background, concepts, techniques and repertoire, Marian McPartland would offer to audiences of all ages a course in jazz appreciation as well as entertainment.
The initial support was small, hardly enough to begin, but few financial grants have been so handsomely productive. With such an ungenerous start-up budget the producers looked for the most inexpensive recording space available. What they finally found was the showroom of the Baldwin Piano Company on Seventh Avenue in New York. Marian explained:
The guy who was then head of the Baldwin Company in New York, Jack Roman, was keen on the show and very helpful. The showroom was actually a great place to play and record. There were all those wonderful pianos. I'd walk around and choose two of them to be placed side-by-side. The engineer, who came up from South Carolina in a truck, would set up his equipment in a broom closet or the ladies' room (Stewart, 1999).
The Baldwin showroom was the setting for the first thirteen programs of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz produced by Dick Phipps. Executive producer, William Hay, recalled dragging in carpeting material to improve the acoustics, ‘It was right next to a fire station and every minute we expected the bell to go off, but it didn't’.
Further programs continued to be recorded and produced in the Baldwin showroom. Season 5 was recorded at the RCA studios on 6th Avenue, a much more convenient location.
About The Host
As far back as 1946, Marian McPartland was presenting jazz on radio on a daily fifteen-minute radio spot in Chicago (Brown, 1946). During the Hickory House years, the Marian McPartland Trio were heard three nights a week on WOR, and during a half hour spot on NBC radio that aired all over the country. Later Marian gained even more exposure and experience in radio broadcasting when she hosted her own show, A Delicate Balance, on WBAI-FM in New York, beginning during the 1960s. At first, she simply played records, and later, when she gained more confidence as a radio presenter, she interviewed well-known jazz musicians. According to Marian McPartland, the show went to air from 10 pm to midnight on alternate Wednesdays.
On one occasion, Marian was preparing for an afternoon taping in the WBAI studio in an old building over in the East 60s which used to be a church. She was seated at a table with microphones and lights on a panel, about to tape her program with her guest, Alec Wilder, who was chain-smoking and drinking coffee:
Mrs. McPartland shuffled through the dozens of record albums on the table and on the floor, wrote out notes, joked with Mr. Wilder, and ran through a list of numbers on the intercom with the man at the controls.
A warning orange light flashed and then a red bulb came on: Mrs. M. (into the mike): 'Hi, this is Marian McPartland…My guest tonight is Alec Wilder, composer and author of ‘American Popular Song: 1900 to 1950'. He's also my dearest friend and severest critic…'
They chatted about her café opening the night before and Mr. Wilder denounced the audience, the waiters, and an act that was sharing the bill with Mrs. McPartland. Mrs. M. defended the offenders. Finally, Mr. W. gave up: ‘You played marvelously – in your difficulties.'
The first record was to be Mrs. M's own of Mr. W's ‘While We're Young'. They talked about a difficult passage, and Mr. W. said that of course it was no problem for Mrs. M. Mrs. M.: ‘I just scoot around it.'
At the end of the number, Mrs. M. said, ‘Isn't that a wonderful piano?'
Mr. W: I think that some jazz pianists feel they don't need to bother about such things. They seem to delight in terrible pianos.'
Mrs. M: ‘Oh, not any more. Now, we all have it in our contracts that we must have a good piano. That one was Rubenstein's favorite...'
During the periods when the records were being played, the conversation flowed and names dropped in a kind of excited, random history of jazz-pop: Sarah Vaughan, Ethel Waters, Mary Lou Williams, Chick Corea, other much admired musicians ('Radio', possibly Newsday).
[Author's note: Marian shared the billing in January 1975 with the singing quartet Manhattan Transfer in the Café Carlyle, according to a review. ‘Over the weekend, one of her sets consisted of two long, untypical (for her) medleys of songs by Cole Porter and Duke Ellington, a retreat to background music because the room was filled with a noisy, inattentive audience waiting for Manhattan Transfer' (Wilson, 1975). The piano Marian hired to record Marian McPartland: Plays The Music Of Alec Wilder had indeed been played by Arthur Rubenstein, and was in a New York studio. ‘That's the most gorgeous piano I've ever recorded on. It's ruined me for life. I'd like to bring it to Greenwich Village and do an album called Live At The Cookery, but I don't think I'd get it through the door' (Campbell, 1973). In his will, wealthy patron Sherman Fairchild left one of his pianos, a Steinway, to Marian McPartland].
Marian McPartland revealed to New York Post interviewer Chip Deffaa that the WBAI program started out with her simply playing records on air, as she felt too nervous to consider interviewing anyone. ‘But while she was on air on WBAI one day, jazz pianist Steve Kuhn walked into the studio unannounced, and started talking with her' (Deffaa, 1988: 110). This exchange evolved into an interview, and other notable guests followed. Marian then developed the confidence to interview jazz musicians such as Benny Goodman, Mary Lou Williams, Eddie Condon, Herbie Hancock, John Lewis, Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck. Although she claimed to be too hesitant to invite Duke Ellington to be interviewed, she gradually developed a reputation as a radio jazz personality.
Marian McPartland had also enjoyed the challenge of playing two-piano improvisations at parties staged by Sherman Fairchild, whose home studio had two grand pianos. At Fairchild's parties, Marian recalled improvising with Hoagy Carmichael, Cy Coleman, or Joe Bushkin, or whoever happened to be there. When Sherman Fairchild summoned pianists to a jam session, it was taken for granted that they were expected to play for their supper. Marian McPartland soon developed a sophisticated approach to improvising with other jazz pianists (Kevorkian, 1988: 28).
That Marian McPartland developed into an experienced interviewer, and attracted an audience base, during her stint on WBAI-FM in New York has been documented. An example of her tenacity in securing guests for the program is shown in the following letters to New York critic John S. Wilson:
I was wondering today, so thought I'd ask you – do you ever do radio shows as a guest? If so would you be a guest on mine on WBAI? I usually tape in the afternoons from 2.30 to 4.30. Needless to say, I'd love it if you'd say 'Yes' – we could play all your favorite records, and talk on any topics that would be interesting to you. The show is heard every other Wednesday 10 pm to 12 midnight. Next week (Oct 15th) John Lewis is on, next will be Bill Evans and after that, I hope – You! (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, October 8, 1975).
When can you do the radio show with me? I'm leaving for Nice on Tuesday, July 6, but I'll be back in August. How about a date in the first week in September? We can kick that subject around…'What Constitutes a Jazz Singer?' (McPartland, Letter to John S. Wilson, July 2, 1976).
The First Show
The new series began in 1978, named Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Because there was no production budget for hire of a studio, and Marian was promoted as a Baldwin artist, the first thirteen programs were recorded in the Baldwin Piano Company showrooms in New York. Marian was meticulous about choosing two Baldwins to be placed side-by-side. With the recording engineer set up in the broom closet, and the showroom closed to the public, the tape began rolling for the inaugural Piano Jazz program. Marian McPartland taped that first interview with Mary Lou Williams on October 8, 1978:
NPR got some funds from Exxon and away we went. The first show was with Mary Lou and I was scared to death of her. She was an intimidating lady, although 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).
Marian admitted to being nervous, and Mary Lou insisted on bringing along her bass player, as well as some ‘attitude', feeling that she should have been chosen to host the show. At first she grudgingly answered Marian's questions, but gradually settled into the interview, even singing a song ‘Rosa Mae' unexpectedly. This historic first interview on Piano Jazz went to air on May 13, 1979.
The Series Begins
A Press Release announced that Marian McPartland would launch the new 13-week radio series Piano Jazz on April 1, 1979. The first broadcast of that first series was with Dr. Billy Taylor in April 1979. The guests for the first season were pianists Billy Taylor, Barbara Carroll, Dick Hyman, John Lewis, Bobby Short, Teddy Wilson, Mary Lou Williams, Ellis Larkins, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Tommy Flanagan, Dave McKenna and Joanne Brackeen.
During the second season, Marian featured nonagenarian Eubie Blake, Hazel Scott, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, George Shearing, Jay McShann, Roy Kral, Patti Bown, Duke Jordan, Oscar Peterson, Barry Harris, Sir Roland Hanna and Ramsey Lewis.
Season Three featured Broadway composer Cy Coleman, Stanley Cowell, Johnny Guarnieri, Alice Coltrane, Jaki Byard, Dick Wellstood, Ray Bryant, Norma Teagarden, Roger Kellaway, John Bunch, Randy Weston, Jess Stacy and Jimmy Rowles.
The fourth season began with Renaissance man Dudley Moore, then came Marie Marcus, Joe Bushkin, McCoy Tyner, Steve Allen, Monty Alexander, Albert Dailey, Dr. Valerie Capers, Adam Makovicz, Dorothy Donegan, Derek Smith, Richie Beirach and Ross Tompkins.
The Press Release for Season Five of Piano Jazz announced that Marian McPartland's weekly program would present Dave Brubeck, Joyce Collins, Art Hodes, Richard Rodney Bennett, George Wein, Clare Fischer, Roger Williams, Joanne Grauer, Peter Nero, Steve Kuhn, Makoto Ozone, Dardanelle Hadley and James Williams.
The sixth season began with Dizzy Gillespie, who played piano as well as trumpet, followed by Cleo Brown, whom Marian had located in obscurity living in Denver, Colorado. After Miss Brown, the guests were Ahmad Jamal, Blossom Dearie, George Wallington, Shirley Horn, Kenny Barron, Dave Frishberg, Carmen McRae, Henry Mancini, Bill Dobbins, Walter Bishop Jr. and Paul Smith. It is interesting to note that Piano Jazz had subtly expanded by featuring singer/pianists Dardanelle, Blossom Dearie, Shirley Horn and Carmen McRae as guests.
Looking back on that first series, Marian McPartland recalled:
The format was settled from the beginning – solos, duets, conversation. I wanted to contact the guest myself, and still do. Right from the beginning there was never anything in the way of a rehearsal. I wanted it to be spontaneous. My guest and I each sit at a piano and chat back and forth and play piano in duets and solos. I ask lots of questions and sometimes it is hard to get people to talk, but mostly they talk a lot! (Voce, 1987: 8).
During this 1987 interview, Marian reminisced about Joe Bushkin being the only pianist who ever wanted to rehearse. She talked about Teddy Wilson, who wasn't known to be loquacious, actually unwinding on the show. She recalled traveling to Chicago to record Oscar Peterson. She discussed George Shearing's demonstration of different styles of classical composers. She also described how she challenged avant garde pianist Alice Coltrane about the chord changes in ‘Giant Steps'.
Some guests surprised Marian, like Roger Kellaway's sudden stride piano, and Ramsay Lewis preferring to play standards. Another surprise was Chick Corea improvising a musical portrait of Marian, whereupon Marian reciprocated with an improvised portrait of her guest. This impromptu exchange gave Marian the idea to improvise ‘A Portrait Of Dudley Moore'. She spoke of her delight in having Norma Teagarden on the show, and drawing out the semi-retired Jess Stacy. She recalled Ellis Larkins needing a drink and a cigarette after each tune. She also talked about hot players like Dick Wellstood and Dave McKenna (Voce, 1987).
Marian McPartland regards her interview with Bill Evans as her finest program, during which Evans gave a total piano lesson on his concept of structure in playing ‘The Touch Of Your Lips', enlightening even those who are non-pianists:
The interview with Bill Evans on Piano Jazz is very precious to me, and when I hear it I relive the many marvelous times when I heard Bill play over the years. The fact that we actually played together so well is still a source of wonder to me. Perhaps we meshed so perfectly because, although I have never consciously tried to copy Bill's playing, his harmonic concepts and brilliantly executed single lines have always had a tremendous influence on me (McPartland, 1978).
Piano Jazz Succeeds
In The New York Times in May 1979, it was reported that Newark's WBGO-FM would begin its 18-hour-a-day operation with 12 hours of jazz music each weekday. WBGO aimed to become the leading broadcaster of jazz among the East Coast's public network stations. Jazz music is America's main native art form, yet it had hitherto received short shrift in radio programming. Jazz Alternatives on WKCR, running since 1971, was the oldest jazz program on the Columbia University-owned outlet, and its assistant program director was quoted as saying, ‘Commercial radio and honest jazz programming are pretty much incompatible.' It should be noted that WNYU-FM lists the criteria for good programming as:
Good programming in the jazz context means a wide range of music, from ragtime to progressive, for example; presentation of rare or hard-to-find records, some belonging to private collectors, identification of artists, and background on the artists' styles and influences (Fraser, 1979)
According to the criteria above, the Marian McPartland show is typical of much of non-commercial jazz programming in that it presents the makers of the music as well as the music itself. Marian’s producer, then known as South Carolina Educational Radio Network (SCERN) and broadcaster National Public Radio were determined to offer entertainment as well as a course in jazz appreciation.
Radio audiences eavesdrop on intimate conversation, as Marian draws out each guest. Her interviewing style is relaxed, and she coaxes each guest to expound on their approach to playing the piano, as well as demonstrating style in solos or duets with Marian. The program is musically engaging, educational and entertaining. Solo and duet improvisations allow the audience to confront the creative act through hearing familiar tunes reinvented spontaneously, or what Marian calls ‘living dangerously’. For each member of the radio audience, Piano Jazz taps into the universality of jazz.
Thirteen shows were taped each year, and week after week Marian McPartland provided her listeners with the most extensive exploration into the art of jazz piano ever offered on radio or television. Unrehearsed and spontaneous duets revealed Marian's complete identification and empathy with each guest. She was courageous in bringing together pianists of disparate styles – from ragtime pianist Eubie Blake, to swing stylist Jess Stacy, to modernist Alice Coltrane, to lyrical pianist Bill Evans.
From the beginning, Piano Jazz offered a unique perspective on this particularly American art form. When, in December 1979, Marian welcomed sprightly 97-year-old Eubie Blake to the studio, he brought nearly a century of anecdotes and music to the show. He dazzled all within earshot by playing songs stretching back to the early 1900s on request. This Piano Jazz interview was published in Keyboard magazine in December 1982.
In 1984, Marian McPartland’s interview with Renaissance man Dudley Moore won for the Piano Jazz series the prestigious George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award from the University of Georgia in 1984. When Piano Jazz was announced as the recipient of this prestigious award for Excellence in Broadcasting, the series was described as ‘entertaining, inventive, and often electric'. Marian McPartland received a gold medal, and Dick Phipps had arranged for the forty pianists present to receive miniature bronze replicas of the Peabody as a souvenir of the occasion.
The quality of Piano Jazz had attracted sponsorship from Exxon Corporation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and South Carolina Educational Radio Network collaborated with its distributor National Public Radio, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Another collaboration would lead to the series being preserved as an historical resource.
On October 28, 1985, recordings of the first 78 programs were presented to the New York Public Library's Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. Speakers at the 1985 presentation at the Lincoln Center included Don McCormick, Curator of the Archives, George Wein, founder of the New York KOOL Jazz Festival, and Henry J. Cauthen, President of South Carolina Educational Radio and Television, who presented tapes of the series to the Archives. This was followed by a concert with Marian McPartland, George Shearing, Billy Taylor and other pianists performing. An attractive brochure was published in honor of the event (Brochure, Presentation to Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives Of Recorded Sound, 1985).
In a later interview with jazz writer Leonard Feather, Marian said, ‘This is more fun than anything else I've ever done' (Feather, 1986). Feather’s prediction in the early 1950s that Marian had three strikes against her being ‘English, white and a girl’ seemed a long way from the truth. What is most remarkable about the program is that in most cases Marian McPartland has never played with her guests before (Quoted from Christian Science Monitor in Piano Jazz Brochure,1985).
Marian McPartland's statement on the historical significance of Piano Jazz is eloquent:
In the case of people like Bill and Eubie who aren't with us any longer the shows have significant historic weight, and also they don't duplicate anything else in the artists' lives. What's on them is unique. People say and do things on the shows that they don't say or do anywhere else which makes it very special (Voce, 1987: 9).
Concluding his liner notes to the session with Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Crouch expresses what Marian McPartland achieves in her musical encounters with the men and women of jazz:
The art of jazz is always grateful to its innovators like Dizzy Gillespie, but it should also be thankful that Marian McPartland has so elegantly developed a way to make the humanity and the magic so mutually transparent (Crouch, 1993).
References
Wilder, A. (1972) American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, New York: Oxford University Press
Voce, S. (1987) ‘Marian McPartland', Jazz Journal International, vol. 40, no. 3, March, pp. 6-9
Stewart, D. (1999) ‘Marian McPartland: Still Going Full Tilt', Available: http://www.current.org, [May 15, 2004]
Lyons, L. (1983) The Great Jazz Pianists, New York: Da Capo Press Inc
De Muth, J. (1981) ‘Marian McPartland: First Lady Of Jazz Piano', Contemporary Keyboard, vol. 7, no. 2, February, pp. 16-20
Unknown author (1992) Keyboard, March
Brown, C. (1946) ‘The Musical McPartlands', Melody Maker, October 12
Radio (unknown source – possibly Newsday)
Wilson, J. S. (1975) ‘Marion [sic] McPartland Heard At Carlyle', The New York Times, January 13
Campbell, M. (1973) ‘Interpreting Wilder', Asbury Park Sunday Press, October 21, D26
Deffaa, C. (1988) ‘McPartland Hits Another Landmark', New York Post, October 13, p. 110
Kevorkian, K. (1988) ‘Marian McPartland: Celebrating Ten Years Of Piano Jazz', Keyboard, December, pp. 28-29
McPartland, M. (1975) Letter to John S. Wilson, October 8
McPartland, M. (1976) Letter to John S. Wilson, July 2
Press Releases for Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz
McPartland, M. (1978) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz With Guest Bill Evans, The Jazz Alliance
Fraser, C. G. (1979) ‘Public And College Radio Stations Nurture Jazz Others Neglect', The New York Times, May 8
Feather, L. (1986) ‘Marian McPartland Has A Giggle Over Her Radio Gig', Los Angeles Times, February 16
Duncan, A. (1985) Christian Science Monitor, (Quoted from Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz brochure on the presentation of tapes of the first 78 programs to the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives Of Recorded Sound, New York Public Library)
Crouch, S. (1993) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz With Dizzy Gillespie, The Jazz Alliance
Guests
First season: Billy Taylor, Barbara Carroll, Dick Hyman, John Lewis, Bobby Short, Teddy Wilson, Mary Lou Williams, Ellis Larkins, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Tommy Flanagan, Dave McKenna and Joanne Brackeen.
Second season: Eubie Blake, Hazel Scott, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, George Shearing, Jay McShann, Roy Kral, Patti Bown, Duke Jordan, Oscar Peterson, Barry Harris, Sir Roland Hanna and Ramsey Lewis.
Third season: Cy Coleman, Stanley Cowell, Johnny Guarnieri, Alice Coltrane, Jaki Byard, Dick Wellstood, Ray Bryant, Norma Teagarden, Roger Kellaway, John Bunch, Randy Weston, Jess Stacy and Jimmy Rowles.
Fourth season: Dudley Moore, Marie Marcus, Joe Bushkin, McCoy Tyner, Steve Allen, Monty Alexander, Albert Dailey, Valerie Capers, Adam Makovicz, Dorothy Donegan, Derek Smith, Richie Beirach and Ross Tompkins.
Fifth season: Dave Brubeck, Joyce Collins, Art Hodes, Richard Rodney Bennett, George Wein, Clare Fischer, Roger Williams, Joanne Grauer, Peter Nero, Steve Kuhn, Makoto Ozone, Dardanelle Hadley and James Williams.
Sixth season: Dizzy Gillespie, Cleo Brown, Ahmad Jamal, Blossom Dearie, George Wallington, Shirley Horn, Kenny Barron, Dave Frishberg, Carmen McRae, Henry Mancini, Bill Dobbins, Walter Bishop Jr. and Paul Smith.
Liner Notes - The Jazz Alliance CDs From This Period (Producer Dick Phipps)
Guest Mary Lou Williams: Liner Notes by John McDonough
Guest Teddy Wilson: Liner Notes by Robert L. Doerschuk
Guest Eubie Blake: Liner Notes by Terry Waldo
Guest Bill Evans: Liner Notes by Marian McPartland
Guest Henry Mancini: Liner Notes by Marian McPartland
Guest Dick Wellstood: Liner Notes by William F. Buckley Jr.
Guest Carmen McRae: Liner Notes by James Gavin
Guest Jess Stacy: Liner Notes by John McDonough
Guest Dizzy Gillespie: Liner Notes by Stanley Crouch
