Legendary jazz pianist Marian McPartland was born
Margaret Marian Turner in 1918 near Buckinghamshire, England. A musical
prodigy, McPartland studied classical music and, in addition to her
piano studies, mastered the violin. She pursued classical studies at the Guildhall School of Music in London and left to join Billy Mayerl’s Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act, performing under the stage name Marian Page.
The group toured throughout Europe during World War II, entertaining Allied troops. While touring with USO shows in Belgium in 1943, she met and began to play with a Chicago cornetist named Jimmy McPartland.
piano studies, mastered the violin. She pursued classical studies at the Guildhall School of Music in London and left to join Billy Mayerl’s Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act, performing under the stage name Marian Page.
The group toured throughout Europe during World War II, entertaining Allied troops. While touring with USO shows in Belgium in 1943, she met and began to play with a Chicago cornetist named Jimmy McPartland.
The two were married and performed at their own wedding
at a military base in Germany. After the war, the couple moved to Chicago, but
in 1949 they moved to Manhattan. With her husband’s encouragement, McPartland
started a trio in 1952, and the group began an eight-year residency at the
Hickory House, the famous New York City jazz nightclub.
In 1955 McPartland began to initiate projects to
introduce jazz to schoolchildren and her enlightened work with black students
in Washington DC was significantly ahead of the general thinking on educational
issues and race in the US at the time. However, she was encountering storms in
her marriage and went through a difficult
period during the later 1950s and early 60s, which culminated in an unhappy tour with the bandleader Benny Goodman.
period during the later 1950s and early 60s, which culminated in an unhappy tour with the bandleader Benny Goodman.
It was Goodman who first sought McPartland out, but he
was a notoriously hard man to please and his relationships with musicians were
often fractious. Goodman made it abundantly plain that he disliked his new
pianist's modernisms and felt she was out of sympathy with his style. McPartland
went into therapy at the Menninger Clinic in Kansas after a tour was abandoned
following the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963 and Goodman
expressed nothing but surprise at her need for sympathetic attention.
Marian, Mary Lou Williams & Thelonius Monk 1958 |
Marian with Rose Murphy |
Marian and Mel Torme |
Through the 1980s, affected by the downturn in jazz's
popularity, McPartland returned to classical music, performing Grieg's Piano
Concerto across America. She also continued to work tirelessly for jazz
education, and turned out to be an eloquent writer on the subject – her
engaging pieces were collected in the anthology All in Good Time (1987). She
also composed a number of enduring originals, including In the Days of Our
Love, With You in Mind and Ambiance.
In the 1990s, the septuagenarian explored the music of
John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Lennon and McCartney in the company of the
cutting-edge saxophonist Chris Potter; paid a recorded tribute to her old
friend Williams; and played an 80th birthday gig at Birdland, New York, as a
reunion of her old trio, with the bassist Bill Crow and Morello on drums. For
her 85th at Birdland in 2003 (recorded for the Concord label), McPartland was
accompanied by a raft of stars but still right at the heart of things, notably
in a superb duet with the guitarist Jim Hall.
She went on to win a Grammy in 2004 and was appointed OBE
in 2010. She died in August 2013 at her home in Port Washington. She was 95
years old. (Edited mainly from The Guardian & limusichalloffame.org)
2 comments:
For “Marian McPartland – In My Life” (1993) go here;
https://www.upload.ee/files/11304292/Marian_McPartland_-_In_My_Life.rar.html
1 Groove Yard 4:05
2 In My Life 4:24
3 In The Days Of Our Love 3:42
4 Red Planet 5:53
5 What's New 4:57
6 Gone With The Wind 5:16
7 Close Your Eyes 3:43
8 For Dizzy 2:19
9 Moon And Sand 5:22
10 Naima 8:18
11 Vélas 8:19
12 Ramblin' 4:03
13 Singin' The Blues 3:38
Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Chris Potter
Bass – Gary Mazzaroppi
Drums – Glenn Davis
Piano – Marian McPartland
Producer – Carl E. Jefferson
Pianist Marian McPartland displays her versatility throughout this reflective and generally thoughtful CD on such selections as the Beatles' "In My Life," John Coltrane's "Red Planet," Ivan Lins' "Velas," and Ornette Coleman's "Ramblin'." Despite the diverse repertoire, McPartland's own flexible style shines through and her individual musical personality is felt in each song. Altoist Chris Potter makes the trio a quartet on half of the selections and he uplifts the session a bit. McPartland's closing wistful solo piano version of "Singin' the Blues" (dedicated to her late husband, cornetist Jimmy McPartland) should not be missed. (AllMusic Review by Scott Yanow)
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Selected discography from blogs named below
Thanks to The Blues That Jazz*
Also Egroj World** (password:egroj)
Marian McPartland - Bossa Nova + Soul**
https://ulozto.net/file/ifKJsw313/marian-mcpartland-bossa-nova-soul-rar
Mary Osborne & Marian McPartland - Now's The Time (1977)**
https://ulozto.net/file/u9cR2nraF/mary-osborne-marian-mcpartland-now-s-the-time-rar
Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz with Guest Henry Mancini (1985)*
https://yadi.sk/d/q5VCtfipeKuDS
Marian McPartland - Twilight World (2007)*
https://yadi.sk/d/3USm-e1EeLECM
EXCELLENT BIO
REGARDS
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