Marian McPartland -- R.I.P.

[bluenoter]

Marian McPartland has died at age 95.

Is there anyone who didn't love her? And imagine how many people she exposed to good jazz! I saw her play live once at some point in my youth.

Here's a currently working link to a memorial broadcast on NPR.org:

Twilight World: Remembering Marian McPartland's Songs

(The player is at the top of the page. Further down on the page are currently working links to NPR.org's other features in her memory.)

R.I.P.

[Mike Schwartz]

RIP
Talk about someone leaving a legacy....WOW!

Tough year for pianists with the losses of Mulgrew, Cedar, George Duke and now Marian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AH4k_RvyD8

[steve(thelil)]

RIP. What a life!!

I got a chance to see her live at Dizzy's - not all that long ago - and she was as charming as on her popular NPR Piano Jazz radio show. She could also still play.

A funny memory is of reading a Downbeat Blindfold test where a pianist was played a track off a RELATIVELY recent (90's?) Marian McPartland record. He or she could not guess who it was, but kept complimenting the artist on how strong and modern the playing was!

BTW, last year at Bryant Park, I got a chance to chat with Marian's successor on Piano Jazz John Weber (the pianist, not Jon Webber the bass player) . He seemed like a very nice guy and had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz. He played requests and when someone would call out a song, he'd tell who the original artist and/or composer was, along with the person's hometown, date of birth and (if applicable) date of death.

[moldyfigg]

Thank you Marian, for all those many years of great music and conversation.

[Gentle Giant]

Learned a lot from her and Billy Taylor on various TV and radio shows.

[Ron Thorne]

This news really saddens me. I knew that she wouldn't live forever but hoped I could always hear Marian's insightful commentary and warm words, not to mention her stylish piano interpretations. I listened to Piano Jazz for decades, always feeling as if I was in her living room, a silent observer.

What an extraordinary lady. I'll miss her voice, her style, her love of life and music. Thanks for everything, dear Marian.




R.I.P., Marian McPartland~

[Ron Thorne]

Marian McPartland, Jazz Pianist and NPR Radio Staple, Dies at 95

By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: August 21, 2013


Marian McPartland, the genteel Englishwoman who became a fixture of the American jazz scene as a pianist and, later in life, hosted the internationally syndicated and immensely popular public radio show “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz,” died on Tuesday at her home in Port Washington, N.Y. She was 95.

Her death was announced by NPR.

Ms. McPartland was a gifted musician but an unlikely candidate for jazz stardom. She recalled in a 1998 interview for National Public Radio that shortly after she arrived in the United States in 1946, the influential jazz critic Leonard Feather, who himself was born in England and who began his career as a pianist, said, “Oh, she’ll never make it: she’s English, white and a woman.”

Mr. Feather, she added, “always used to tell me it was a joke, but I don’t think he meant it as a joke.”

The odds against any woman finding success as a jazz musician in the late 1940s and early ’50s were formidable, but Ms. McPartland overcame them with grace. Listeners were charmed by her Old World stage presence and captivated by her elegant, harmonically lush improvisations, which reflected both her classical training and her fascination with modern jazz.

Full story <

[Chazro]

I loved 'Piano Jazz'. A true lady that possessed charm, wit, and grace. And man, could she play! But talk about taking someone for granted, I don't own any of her records! An error that I intend to correct very soon.

RIP

[stonemonkts]

Her interview of Cecil Taylor was classic. Paul Bley too. They played a duet improvisation to end the hour.

[Mike Schwartz]

Dr. Billy Taylor in conversation with Marian McPartland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQtk4fvSSRw

[bluenoter]

Her interview of Cecil Taylor was classic.

[bluenoter]

From #1, which I've now edited after posting it in haste:

Here's a currently working link to a memorial broadcast on NPR.org:

Twilight World: Remembering Marian McPartland's Songs

(The player is at the top of the page. Further down on the page are currently working links to NPR.org's other features in her memory.)

[Ron Thorne]

Our son, Darren, called us from his cabin last night, where he was working, and told us about the NPR tribute, which he was listening to at the time. Imagine that, a son who isn't a jazz fan, calling his parents from a remote log cabin on a lake in Alaska to alert them to a special program celebrating the music and life of Marian McPartland. Darren told me (last year) that he had fallen for Marian years ago, after being totally absorbed by Piano Jazz. I was pleasantly stunned then, and very appreciative last night. We turned off the television and turned up our wonderful little wooden radio to listen to the exact same thing he was hearing hundreds of miles away in the woods of Alaska.

Thanks, Darren & Marian.