[Dixielandjazz] RE: The Grand Dame of OKOM

[Ed Danielson]

I'm pleased to report that Dame Marian will perform for jazz89 KUVO's 20th 
anniversary celebration in Denver on November 19th.  Details at www.kuvo.org 
.


>------------------------------
>
>Message: 18
>Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:07:15 -0400
>From: Steve barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] The Grand Dame  of OKOM
>To: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Message-ID: <BF4EF853.390A%barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>Marion McPartland, a much neglected (by this list) OKOM pianist.  Doing
>something for the music the rest of us can only dream about. How fortunate 
>I
>was to have seen her frequently at the Hickory House a half decade ago. My
>buddy Chuck Traeger played bass for her in those halcyon days for jazz.
>
>I originally went to see her because she was "Jimmy's" wife. Now? She is a
>national treasure in the world of jazz. You go, girl.
>
>Cheers,
>Steve
>
>Jazz Review | Marian McPartland
>A Master Class in Obscure Jazz
>
>By NATE CHINEN - September 14, 2005 - NY Times
>
>Marian McPartland climbed the stage unsteadily at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola on
>Tuesday night, and apologized for her sensible shoes. The pianist, who is
>87, explained that she had injured her ankle falling down some stairs; she
>had a bad knee already. "So now I don't have a leg to stand on," she said.
>Characteristically, Ms. McPartland played the line not for sympathy but for
>laughs. Then she turned to the piano and began a solo performance that cast
>all thoughts of frailty aside.
>
>Ms. McPartland has been one of the most widely heard jazz pianists of the
>last 25 years, but not by the usual means. As creator and host of the 
>weekly
>radio show "Piano Jazz," heard on NPR, she has engaged hundreds of 
>musicians
>in dialogue of both the verbal and musical sort, instructing untold
>thousands of listeners along the way. Informative but never pedagogical, 
>she
>has stood for the notion that jazz, whatever its claims as an American
>treasure, should feel breezy and alive.
>
>The capacity crowd at Dizzy's was deeply familiar with Ms. McPartland's
>cocktail of education and entertainment. They listened with evident rapture
>to her between-song patter, which returned several times to her tenure, 
>some
>50 years ago, as house pianist at the Hickory House on Fifty-Second Street.
>When Ms. McPartland introduced "Singin' the Blues" as a song she learned
>from her husband - the Dixieland cornetist Jimmy McPartland, who died in
>1991 - there were more than a few commiserating sighs.
>
>Noting her inclusion on the monthlong Diet Coke Women in Jazz Festival, Ms.
>McPartland frontloaded her set with songs written by women. She applied a
>subtle re-harmonization to "What's Your Story, Morning Glory?" by Mary Lou
>Williams, the pioneering pianist-composer who had been the inaugural guest
>on "Piano Jazz." Ms. McPartland took a less reverential approach with
>"Lullaby of the Leaves," a standard by Bernice Petkere, and waxed wistfully
>impressionistic on "Rain on the Roof," a lovely obscurity by Anne Ronell.
>
>The rediscovery of castaway songs is an obvious delight for Ms. McPartland,
>who reveled in "The Clothed Woman," a lesser-known Duke Ellington gem; its
>bluesy angularity and classical undertones complemented her unassumingly
>modernistic style. On a more shopworn number from the Ellington band book,
>"Take the 'A' Train," she eschewed the usual stomping rhythmic buoyancy -
>not her strong suit as a pianist - in favor of darkly chromatic bass-clef
>figures that nodded to the avant-garde.
>
>In concert as on the radio, Ms. McPartland is an attentive
>conversationalist, so it was only natural that she paused to mine the
>audience for requests. There were two - "Billy Strayhorn" and "something 
>for
>New Orleans" - and each was lovingly fulfilled. Along with "Take the 'A'
>Train," Ms. McPartland played Strayhorn's "Lush Life," with a tone and 
>tempo
>suggestive of bittersweet molasses. But she was at her finest on "New
>Orleans," an underplayed Hoagy Carmichael number that she performed in a
>plaintive cadence, with her modest brand of self-assurance
>
>
>
>
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>
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>End of Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 33, Issue 32
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