Piano Jazz Expands
During the first series, Piano Jazz had begun
to expand its programming policy by introducing singer/pianists. South Carolina ETV and Radio officially recognizes Sarah Vaughan as the
first guest invited to the show as a singer. This is despite the fact that Miss Vaughan
also played piano early in her career. This program was released for broadcast
on May 8, 1986. In the Baldwin Revue, Marian McPartland is quoted as saying:
Piano Jazz has evolved. As you may know, we’ve stretched
out to the extent of not just having piano players. A few years into the show
I started thinking, ‘Well, Dizzy Gillespie plays piano. Why can’t we have him
on the show and let him play some piano and the horn?’ Then we had Gary Burton
and Gerry Mulligan. And then I thought, ‘Well, why can’t we have a singer like
Tony Bennett? I would accompany him.’ So it got into that. Then, ‘Why can’t
we have a drummer like Roy Haynes? And we’ll hire a bass player, but it will
still be Piano Jazz.’ And we had (banjoist) Bela Fleck. It’s still
Piano Jazz and we have a lot of instrumentalists who are not pianists,
but there’s enough piano because I’m there (Baldwin Revue, pp. 9-10).
Interviews On The Road
Part of Marian McPartland’s strategy for Piano Jazz was
to set up interviews in other cities during her own touring schedule. During
a visit to Los Angeles in January 1986, Marian informed writer Leonard Feather
that interviews were in the pipeline with singer Mel Torme, also a drummer, pianist/singer Nellie
Lutcher, and pianists Lou Levy and Pete Jolly She referred
to the challenge of blending with historian Max Morath who specializes in turn-of-the-century
music. She noted that she expected to secure actor Jack Lemmon, and violinist Stephane
Grappelli for future programs. She lamented being unable to connect with Earl
Hines and Count Basie, who would both have loved to be on Piano Jazz.
Given the stylistic variety of guests on the show, Feather lists Marian’s qualifications
as ‘her own consummate keyboard artistry, her encyclopedic knowledge of piano
history, and her ability to switch styles so that she can duet with all comers’ (Feather, 1986).
As well as adventurous programming, Marian took special pride
in having rediscovered performers long in obscurity such as Phineas Newborn
Jr., located in Memphis. She also tracked down Cleo Brown, who was alive and well and devoted to religion in Denver,
but had been listed as deceased in John Chilton’s Who’s Who Of Jazz (Chilton,
1978). Sadly, producer Dick Phipps died early in 1986. However, Shari Hutchinson
(nee Craighead), who had originally been a Mastering Engineer and Recording
Supervisor with the program, took over as producer. Ms Hutchinson has been at the helm
of Piano Jazz ever since.
At the end of 1986, Marian McPartland recorded
thirteen programs of Piano Jazz with pianists Henry Mancini, Adam Makovicz,
Max Morath, Clare Fischer, Peter Nero, Richie Beirach, Ahmad Jamal, Judy Roberts,
Chick Corea, Richard Rodney Bennett, Cecil Taylor, Gary Burton and Bobby Short.
By 1986, the series was beaming to approximately 164 stations across the United
States and awards kept coming. Following the Peabody Award, Piano Jazz received
the International Radio Festival of New York Gold Medal Award, the Gabriel Award,
and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Program Award.
Adventurous Programming
At the end of 1988, Marian McPartland and South Carolina Educational Radio proudly launched Season Ten of Piano Jazz.
With Exxon the underwriter, and the show distributed by National Public Radio, Piano Jazz
could be heard in the New York area over WBGO/88.3 FM, the Newark-based
jazz outlet. Although Marian McPartland continued to invite guests who were
straight-ahead jazz pianists, she proceeded with adventurous programming. Marian
was quoted as saying, ‘Jazz is definitely attracting a younger audience, probably
due to people hearing Piano Jazz and becoming interested, curious about
the music’ (Press Release). Many listeners got their first samplings of such
phenomenal young performers as Makoto Ozone, Michael Feinstein, and Wynton Marsalis
on Piano Jazz.
For Season Ten, Marian McPartland chose for the guest list diverse
artists such as folk singer Judy Collins, whose evocative poetry and pure soprano
make for mesmerizing ballads; singer/pianist Harry Connick Jr., a New Orleans
pianist who signed a recording contract at age 19, and is a dynamic pianist with
a superb singing voice; the engaging Steve Allen from The Tonight Show; talented
pianist/trumpeter Nadine Jensen; 'dangerous’ rock keyboardist Paul Shaffer from
Late Night With David Letterman; pianist Gene Harris; television
personality Johnny Costa; crossover pianist Bob Thompson; the irrepressible
pianist/singer Rose Murphy known for her ‘chee chee’ voice; jazz troubadour
Mose Allison; formidable pianist Lee Shaw; and Leonard Feather, arbiter of jazz
performance, writer, composer, lyricist and producer.
By approaching guests whose perspectives on jazz run the
full spectrum of style, from blues to fusion to bebop and beyond, Marian McPartland
brings variety and diversity into Piano Jazz. When first approached
to host Piano Jazz, Marian McPartland had expected the series to last
thirteen weeks. By Season Ten, the series had expanded and diversified, and
reached out across the United States to countless jazz stations and thousands
of jazz and non-jazz listeners.
Tenth Anniversary
The tenth season of Piano Jazz began airing in October 1988. Piano Jazz received publicity for its tenth anniversary from New
York Post (October 13, 1988) and Newsday (October 26, 1988). In
December 1988, Keyboard Magazine recorded that Marian McPartland was
celebrating ten years on air with a special celebration at the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound in the Lincoln Center
annex of the New York Public Library. Present at the celebration were pianists Dr. Billy Taylor, Michael
Feinstein, Dick Katz, Joanne Brackeen, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Shaffer and Joe
Bushkin. At that time, 142 programs were indexed in the archives. The tapes were not available for borrowing,
but fans of the program could access recorded installments of the shows for
listening on the premises. [Author's note: In 1999, this researcher spent three weeks browsing
the Archives, accessing and listening to these recorded broadcasts].
The series has been indexed, and this repository of tapes from Piano Jazz is a valuable research resource. Marian’s interview with Dudley Moore won for Piano Jazz the prestigious George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award.
Marian McPartland spoke of the program's status to one interviewer:
In addition to Eubie Blake, several great pianists who have since died
were featured on Piano Jazz. These shows in particular are of enormous
historical value. McPartland cites the interview with Bill Evans, during which
he explains almost note-for-note his arrangement process: ‘That’s been [re]taped
and taken all over the world,’ she says proudly (Kevorkian, 1988: 29).
However, there is more to musicians than music alone. By drawing her guests out to talk freely about their early beginnings, and share anecdotes
about their lives and career highlights, Marian is able to give her listeners fascinating
insights into the lives behind the music:
You can play a concert and be a great success. People applaud,
you go home, and that’s that. Even if you tape it, it doesn’t seem to have
the same meaning as something like this. So many great jazz people, all of
whom should be documented (Kevorkian, 1988: 29).
Piano Jazz Goes International
In November 1988, Hawaii was also introduced to Marian
McPartland’s Piano Jazz on KHPR-FM 88.1, with Marian performing in the Kahala
Hilton to launch the connection. A successful capital investment program raised
$3.1 million for KHPR, supported by the Hilton. Acquiring Piano Jazz was
KHPR’s first aural commitment to jazz:
Like jazz, McPartland’s show is largely unstructured. She and
her guests reminisce, trade stories and songs and improvise on the piano. Often
the broadcasts seem the conversations of soul mates, with the radio audience
eavesdropping on the creative process (Manuel, 1988: D1).
Preserved In Congress And On Cassette
For today’s jazz scholars, and for music historians of the
future, the Piano Jazz broadcasts are also permanently stored at the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. In the late eighties, the executive
producer of Concord Jazz Inc, Carl Jefferson, decided to issue some of Marian’s
piano shows on cassette, creating a new label, Camco.
At that time, South Carolina
Educational Radio Network was at a crossroads. After producing 13, and occasionally
26, programs per annum for National Public Radio, they decided to file for a
major grant with the National Endowment for the Performing Arts to enable them
to produce new programs during 1989. Endorsement for the grant proposal
came from a strongly worded letter from The New York Times jazz critic, John
S. Wilson. This letter is worth noting in its entirety as a testimonial for Piano Jazz:
I am delighted to know that you are planning to produce programs
of Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz for next year. This series is unequalled
in its presentation of jazz artists in a setting in which they are presented
with appreciative sensitivity and have the opportunity to discuss their work
with a knowing interviewer. Marian has a unique ability to share in the performance
with her guests and to draw them out verbally in a manner that, for the average
listener, adds to the interest of what they are doing. To hear this done in
the artist’s own words is an invaluable bit of oral history, a fascinating and
humanizing inside view of these pianists. It is essential that this series
be continued because, as one looks down the list of her guests to date, it is
appalling to find how many have died just in this brief time span – Mary Lou
Williams, Teddy Wilson, Bill Evans, Eubie Blake, Hazel Scott, Johnny Guarnieri,
Albert Dailey, Dick Wellstood among others. Marian is doing a great service
to American music by bringing these pianists to the attention of her listeners
as well as preserving their work in this entertaining and informative manner.
(Signed John S. Wilson, November 22, 1988).
‘Best Of’ Series
It would appear that South Carolina Educational Radio Network were successful in obtaining the grant, as Marian’s then agent, Ron Grevatt Associates, indicated that Marian was busy recording blocks of programs assembled by NPR as a ‘Best Of’ Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz series.
For the 1988/89 winter season, Marian's guests were pianist McCoy Tyner, trumpeter/pianist Dizzy Gillespie, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, pianist Dave Brubeck, singer/drummer Mel Torme, singer/pianist Carmen McRae, and pianists Joanne Grauer and Herbie Hancock. All the programs from the winter 1989 season were rebroadcasts.
For the next series, Marian interviewed pianists John Lewis, Donald Brown, Geri Allen and Ben Sidran, pianists Hank Jones and Peter Schickele, saxophonist Benny Carter, composer Matt Dennis and Jeannie Cheatham (McPartland, Letter to Clare Hansson, January 29, 1989). All the programs from the Winter 1989 season were rebroadcasts.
Grevatt also advised that NPR had negotiated a block of shows to be broadcast in the UK on BBC Radio Two’s Sounds of Jazz. Shows contracted included those with singer/pianist Nellie Lutcher, and pianists Bill Evans, Eubie Blake, Dudley Moore, Jay McShann, Teddy Wilson and Hazel Scott.
Piano Jazz Comes To Australia
Piano Jazz had previously gone international in 1986,
when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation purchased a series of Piano Jazz
programs to be broadcast nationally. The series was announced with a write-up by jazz journalist/pianist
Dick Hughes in 24 Hours Magazine, the journal listing programming for
Australia's ABC. These ten programs provoked tremendous interest in Australia about
Marian McPartland as a jazz pianist. For the first time, Australian jazz listeners
were able to tune in to interviews with an impressive array of pianistic giants never heard in this format before.
They consisted of interviews with pianists Jess
Stacey, Joe Bushkin, George Shearing, Oscar Peterson, Monty Alexander, Ross
Tompkins, Cy Coleman, Eubie Blake, Dudley Moore and Sir Roland Hanna. Although
ABC jazz programmers Eric Child, Arch McKirdy, Ian Neill and Jim McLeod had interviewed
many jazz artists on their radio programs over the years, there had never been
a program like Piano Jazz which gave such in-depth insights into the
art of playing jazz piano from the lips and fingers of the artists themselves.
Season Twelve Includes UK Pianists
In 1989, the twelfth season of Piano Jazz included
guests Michel Camilo, Shirley Horn, Don Pullen, Benny Green, classical pianist
Ruth Laredo and Tommy Flanagan. Also included was Loonis McGlohon, who was the resident pianist on Alec
Wilder’s radio show American Popular Song, and who provided the lyrics for Marian McPartland's composition ‘Willow
Creek’. The shows recorded in 1989 were not broadcast until 1990.
Again John S. Wilson endorsed the series:
Marian McPartland brings a mixture of qualities to her radio series
that is both unique and invaluable. She is, first of all, a major jazz artist
so that it is always an instructive pleasure to hear her. But beyond that,
she has developed such sensitivity as an interviewer and as a teacher that the
guests on her program are put in a setting unlike any they will be heard in
elsewhere. A listener learns more about any pianist who appears with Marian
than would be possible in other circumstances. The exchanges – musical and
verbal – between Marian and her guests take the listener into a very revealing
point of view. Year by year, the tapes of the programs grow in value as more
and more of the greatest pianists in jazz talk and play with her. And, as she
begins her 12th season, it is essential that she continue building
this catalogue of performances in a constant race to get them on tape before
time steps in to hit the final note (Signed John S. Wilson, October 26, 1989). These programs were not broadcast until Winter 1990.
In the fall of 1989, Marian McPartland and producer Shari Hutchinson
flew to London to record four programs. These programs juxtaposed Marian’s talents with
a well-chosen quartet of British piano players - Dave Lee, Alan Clare, Brian
Lemon and Stan Tracey. Recordings took place at the BBC’s Delaware Road
studios in northwest London, thus completing Season Twelve of the series.
Marian was impressed by the diverse talents of the British foursome, and she
anticipated that American audiences would enjoy having the opportunity to judge
their obvious pianistic merits. She also hoped for a positive reaction to the
collaborations by UK radio audiences:
I feel that the BBC has only scratched the surface in transmitting
a comparative handful of Piano Jazz – courtesy of BBC Radio Two’s program The
Sounds of Jazz. I’m assuming British fans will get to hear the shows featuring
Brian [Lemon], Alan [Clare], Dave [Lee], and Stan [Tracey]. But I’m hopeful they will be making even greater
use of the extensive PJ catalogue (Britt, 1989)
In October 1989, Marian McPartland's guest on Piano Jazz was jazz violinist Stephane Grappelly (supposedly the original spelling of his name). A review claims that this edition of Piano Jazz clearly deserves to be commercially released:
There aren't any real surprises among the songs selected, but Grappelly's violin and McPartland's piano are a heavenly match, as it is obvious to any listener that they are enjoying themselves throughout the show. The duets are fairly brief, but the improvising by each of them is inspired. Grappelly enjoyed playing piano, so anyone who saw him in concert during the 1980s (though this was hardly the only time) probably remembers him switching to solo piano for a song or two. Following his delicately swinging solo piano interpretation of 'Looking At You' (which may sound similar to Teddy Wilson's style), he also plays two piano duets with his hostess - 'Anything Goes' and 'Shine', with appropriately swinging results.
McPartland also offers a touching improvised portrait of her guest, prompting Grappelly to ask for a tape of the performance as a souvenir. After a long discussion of Grappelly's partnership with Django Reinhardt, Marian plays a stunning solo rendition of the late guitarist's best known composition ['Nuages'], which was an expected part of any Grappelly concert, though he graciously allows McPartland to play the timeless ballad unaccompanied.
Although the choice of a final tune must have been difficult, due to the large repertoire of each of the two musicians, they conclude the program with a rousing take of 'Oh! Lady Be Good!'. One of hundreds of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz programs recorded for broadcast by NPR stations since 1979, this edition clearly deserves to be commercially released (Dryden, 2004).
For a feature article in Keyboard Magazine, Marian McPartland is pictured recording
an installment of Piano Jazz with Montreal pianist, Oliver Jones, the
two pianists seated side by side at Baldwin grand pianos (Keyboard, March, 1992).
In 1990, 39 new programs were produced, all recorded during 1989 and 1990.
By the 1990s, with broadcasts reaching international audiences, and Piano
Jazz available on recording as well as in archives, millions of people were
tuned in to Marian McPartland’s easeful interviewing style and the diverse array
of guest musicians who bring their musical expertise and their stories into
avid listeners’ lives.
Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton was a major influence on Marian McPartland, and she described him as 'a man totally wedded to his instrument'. Hampton also developed a two-finger piano style, and his session on Piano Jazz was captivating, in tune with the program's policy of branching out to include other instruments. According to Ira Gitler, 'This is one Piano Jazz program that will be treasured for years to come' (Gitler, 1996).
Lionel Hampton's session on Piano Jazz has been re-released on CD by The Jazz Alliance in the new format with an updated cover design.
References
Unknown author (1999) 'Marian McPartland: In Love With Jazz', Baldwin Revue, vol. 2, no. 3, Fall, pp. 8-10
Feather, L. (1986) ‘Marian McPartland
Has A Giggle Over Her Radio Gig’, Los Angeles Times, February
16
Chilton, J. (1978) Who’s
Who of Jazz: Storyville To Swing Street, London: Time-Life Records Special Edition
Deffaa, C. (1988) ‘McPartland
Hits Another Landmark’, New York Post, October 13, p. 110
Colford, P. D. (1988) ‘Jazzing It Up On Piano - Marian
McPartland’s 10th Year Of Jazz’, Newsday, October
26, pp. 13, 15
Kevorkian, K. (1988) ‘Marian McPartland
Celebrating Ten Years Of Radio Jazz’, Keyboard, December, pp. 28-29
Manuel, S. (1988) ‘Saturday Nights
Will Be Lively’, Honolulu Star Bulletin, November, pp. D1,D2
Hughes, D. (1986) 24 Hours
Magazine, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Wilson, J. S. (1988) Letter To The National Endowment For The Performing Arts Board
Wilson, J. S. (1989) Letter Of Support For Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz
McPartland, M. (1989) Letter
to Clare Hansson, January 29
Grevatt, R. (1989) Press Release
Britt, S. (1989) Press Release – Marian McPartland’s
Piano Jazz, Season Twelve
Dryden, K. (2004) 'Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz With "Stephane Grappelly"', Available: http://www.allaboutjazz.com [January 4, 2005]
Doerschuk, R. (1992) ’The Future
Of Piano Jazz: Part 1’, Keyboard, March, pp. 72-91, 94-96
Gitler, I. (1996) Liner Notes to Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz With Guest Lionel Hampton, The Jazz Alliance
Guests
1986 on: Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, Nellie Lutcher, Lou Levy,
Pete Jolly, Max Morath, Jack Lemmon, Stephane Grappelly, Phineas Newborn
Jr., Henry Mancini, Adam Makovicz, Clare Fischer, Peter Nero, Richie Beirach, Ahmad Jamal, Judy Roberts, Chick Corea, Richard Rodney Bennett, Cecil Taylor, Gary Burton and Bobby Short.
Season Ten: Judy Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Steve
Allen, Nadine Jensen, Paul Shaffer, Gene Harris, Johnny Costa, Bob Thompson,
Rose Murphy, Mose Allison, Lee Shaw and Leonard Feather.
1988/1989: McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge,
Dave Brubeck, Mel Torme, Carmen McRae, Joanne Grauer, Herbie Hancock, John Lewis,
Donald Brown, Geri Allen, Ben Sidran, Hank Jones, Peter
Schickele and Dr. John.
Season Twelve: Michel Camilo, Shirley Horn, Don
Pullen, Benny Green, Ruth Laredo, Tommy Flanagan, Loonis McGlohon, Dave Lee,
Alan Clare, Brian Lemon and Stan Tracey.
Liner Notes – The Jazz Alliance CDs From This Period (Producer Shari Hutchinson)
Guest Barbara Carroll: Liner Notes by Leonard Feather
Guest Dave McKenna: Liner Notes by Nancy Wade
Guest Dave Brubeck: Liner Notes by Robert L. Doerschuk
Guest Red Richards: Liner Notes by John Norris
Guest Milt Hinton: Liner Notes by David G. Berger
Guest Bobby Short: Liner Notes by Chris Albertson
Guest Rosemary Clooney: Lines Notes by Chris Albertson
Guest Lionel Hampton: Liner Notes by Ira Gitler
