Marian McPartland

Marian McPartland first reached widespread recognition as the longtime host of the radio series Piano Jazz, which she began in 1978, yet her stature as a pianist had already been firmly established many years earlier. During her time in England she appeared in a four-piano vaudeville ensemble and later crossed the European continent to entertain Allied troops throughout World War II. While performing in Belgium in 1944 she met cornetist Jimmy McPartland; the two married shortly afterward. In 1946 she accompanied her husband to the United States, where she occasionally joined his ensembles even though her harmonic approach diverged from the Dixieland conventions he favored. By 1950 she was leading her own trio at the Embers, and from 1952 to 1960 she held a long engagement at the Hickory House, with Joe Morello remaining the group’s drummer until 1957. Throughout the 1950s she recorded frequently for Savoy and Capitol while also cutting sessions for Argo in 1958 and for Time in both 1960 and 1963, as well as dates for Sesac and Dot. Although her marriage to Jimmy eventually ended in divorce, the pair stayed on cordial terms, collaborated on occasion, and even exchanged vows again only weeks before his passing. She launched her own Halcyon imprint and issued several strong albums on it between 1969 and 1977. During 1976 and 1977 she also produced three recordings for Tony Bennett’s Improv label before moving to Concord, where she continued to record after 1978. The Jazz Alliance imprint later released more than thirty CDs drawn from the Piano Jazz broadcasts, a number of which remain especially noteworthy. McPartland passed away at her Port Washington, New York, residence in August 2013 at the age of 95.