April 10, 2001 Summary Facts:
Legendary jazz pianist, composer and award-winning host of National Public Radio’s popular program “Piano Jazz,” Marian McPartland closes UCSB Arts & Lectures 2000-2001 performing arts season in style with a special concert on Tuesday, May 15 at 8 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall. The Marian McPartland Trio (featuring piano, bass and drums) will perform songs from McPartland’s latest Duke Ellington CD The Single Petal of a Rose, and more. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the most elegant pianists in jazz,” McPartland has been a leading figure in jazz interpretation for the past 60 years. Recipient of numerous prestigious awards and honors including Downbeat’s Lifetime Achievement Award, McPartland has played and toured with such great jazz artists as Benny Goodman and Sarah Vaughan, and has written tunes that were recorded by such singers as Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee and Cleo Lane. Celebrating its 21st season, her Peabody Award-winning National Public Radio show “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” continues to present the world’s most outstanding jazz artists from virtually all styles of jazz. Her distinguished guest list has included George Shearing, Mel Torme, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Stephen Sondheim, Tony Bennett and Andre Previn. McPartland’s charm, tireless curiosity and inexhaustible knowledge about jazz, past and present, inform her interviews, often leading to remarkably enthusiastic, unguarded performances by her guests. “Much of what has made…’Piano Jazz’ a quietly extraordinary phenomenon is the empathy and space [McPartland] gives her guest musicians,” wrote New York’s Newsday. “Often, McPartland’s guests are so touched by her generosity that they’ll repay her tribute by getting close to her voice. You really should find the ‘Piano Jazz’ show with Cecil Taylor if you want to hear what informed and adventurous mutual appreciation can produce.” Born in England on March 21, 1918 near Slough, Buckinghamshire, Margaret Marian Turner began her studies in classical piano at the age of three. In her teens, McPartland began listening to Goodman and Sidney Bechet, and pianists such as James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. Through listening to records and attending performances, she learned to play jazz as well as the blues, quickly abandoning her studies in classical music to join a four-piano group touring in vaudeville theaters around the country. During World War II, McPartland traveled to Europe and played for the troops. In France, she met and began to work with her future husband, famed Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland. They fell in love, married and moved to Chicago, where McPartland played with her husband’s quintet before forming her own trio. In 1952, McPartland’s trio embarked on what was to become a long-running gig at New York’s Hickory House, where she was now being heard by many of the legendary musicians whom she had long listened to and admired. In 1970, McPartland started her own record company, Halcyon, and began to record solo and small jazz ensemble works by other jazz composers, as well as some of her own compositions. As she became more caught up in composition, she began to include her own music (such as “Twilight World” and “In the Days of Our Love”) when playing sets of standard tunes. McPartland and her husband eventually divorced but remained very close and continued playing together. Two weeks before Jimmy McPartland died, they were remarried. McPartland’s reviews and articles have appeared in several publications including The New York Times and Esquire. A collection of her articles on jazz, All In Good Time, was published in 1987. McPartland was pictured in Art Kane’s legendary 1958 photograph taken for Esquire magazine, featuring more than 50 musicians representing three generations of jazz history, including Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young and Dizzy Gillespie. The image later inspired Jean Bach’s Oscar-nominated documentary film, A Great Day in Harlem. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this performance is sponsored by the Radisson Hotel and KCBX Public Radio 89.9 FM. For tickets or more information, Editor: For photos, please call |