join the mailing list! add | remove

Thursday March 20th, 2003

Baldwin salutes Marian McPartland on her birthday

Marian McPartland, who many know as the dynamic host of the National Public Radio program "Piano Jazz," celebrates her 85th birthday today (March 20). The show, now in its 25th year, is the longest-running performance program on public radio.

There will be a special birthday celebration at Birdland jazz club in New York City tomorrow, March 21, hosted by ABC World News Tonight anchor and senior editor Peter Jennings with specials guests Norah Jones, Clark Terry, Billy Taylor, Bill Charlap, Jim Hall, Phil Woods, Karrin Allyson, Nnenna Freelon, Barbara Carroll and others. In addition, a special segment of "The Today Show" with McPartland will air on Sunday, April 13 at 8 a.m.

McPartland is a highly respected pianist, recording artist, lecturer and educator. Born Margaret Marian Turner in Windsor, England, she started teaching herself to play the piano around the age of 3, but didnt take formal piano lessons until she was 19 and studying classical music at the famous London Guildhall School of Music. Her love of jazz was cultivated by listening to the BBC and a boyfriend who introduced her to the 78 r.p.m. records of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and others. She performed with the USO camp shows in Belgium and France during WWII, meeting husband Jimmy McPartland, a cornetist from Chicago, while on tour in Belgium. They later moved to United States and with encouragement from Jimmy, formed her own trio that went on to perform at New Yorks famed Hickory House from 1952-1960.

She has recorded for several labels including Savoy and Capitol during the 1950s, Argo, Time, Sesac, Dot and Tony Bennetts Improv label. McPartland also formed her own Halcyon label, releasing several albums between 1969-1977. She signed with Concord in 1978 and released over 50 albums on that label alone. Other artists have covered McPartlands songs including Bennett and Peggy Lee. The Jazz Alliance has issued over 30 recordings of select "Piano Jazz" tapings over the life of the program.

"Marian McPartlands Piano Jazz" was first broadcast in 1978. The hour-long show features McPartland collaborating with a wide array of guests, both established jazz masters and fledging artists. Dave Brubeck, Rosemary Clooney, Les Paul, Bill Evans, Norah Jones, Oscar Peterson, Regina Carter, Lenore Raphael and Chuck Mangione are just a sampling of the artists who have been on the show over the years several hundred artists in all.

McPartland has earned the Down Beat Lifetime Achievement Award, was inducted in the International Jazz Association of Jazz Education Hall of Fame in 1986, has played for the President at the White House and received honorary degrees from Hamilton, Union and Bates Colleges, Bowling Green University and the University of South Carolina, among other honors. "Piano Jazz" has garnered numerous awards over the years including The George Foster Peabody Award and in 2001 a "Gracie," the Gracie Allen Award given by American Women in Radio and Television.

Marian has been a Baldwin artist for over 25 years and uses two Baldwin SF10 Artist Grand pianos for tapings of "Piano Jazz." We here at Baldwin send our heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of her birthday many happy returns, Marian!