[Dixielandjazz] Happy 90th Birthday, Marion

[Stephen G Barbone]

Congratulations on your 90th Marion. Thank you Jimmy for marrying  
Marion and bringing her to the USA.  What I'd like to see is Marion  
and Les Paul together. Go for it, old folks.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

March 21, 2008 - NY Times - By Nate Chinen
MARKING A MILESTONE WITH A LIGHT TOUCH


After settling into her station at the piano on Wednesday night at  
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Marian McPartland took a stab at solidarity.  
“Is anybody else here 90?” she asked, polling the crowded room.

There were no affirmative responses, so after a brief moment she moved  
on. In this place, at this moment, she was unique in more ways than one.

Ms. McPartland was presiding over her own 90th-birthday party with  
characteristic lightness and aplomb. While her gold lamé gown  
underscored a sense of occasion, she made sure to dispense with  
formality. “I guess I should say thank you to the Arthritis  
Foundation,” she said, eliciting much laughter. She seemed pleased by  
the piano-shaped cake that was eventually presented to her, but her  
focus was chiefly on the music.

This should surprise no one who has heard “Piano Jazz,” the  
entertaining and edifying show Ms. McPartland has had on public radio  
for nearly 29 years. “Piano Jazz” features thoughtful conversation and  
tandem playing by Ms. McPartland and her guests. The first set at  
Dizzy’s conveyed a similar feeling, though there wasn’t room enough  
for two pianos on the stage. So the only pianist to sit in was Jason  
Moran, who offered a warm and knowing solo rendition of “Time and Time  
Again,” one of Ms. McPartland’s compositions. The other musical guests  
fell in with Ms. McPartland and her longstanding trio, featuring Gary  
Mazzaroppi on bass and Glenn Davis on drums.

Jeremy Pelt, playing fluegelhorn, brought an easy grace to the  
songbook standard “Moonlight in Vermont.” Regina Carter imbued her  
violin with a hauntingly vocal quality on an exquisite reading of  
“Come Sunday,” the Duke Ellington hymn. Karrin Allyson sang a pair of  
enduring ballads by Ms. McPartland: “Twilight World” (lyrics by Johnny  
Mercer) and “There’ll Be Other Times” (lyrics by Margaret Jones).

And Norah Jones, who recalled seeing Ms. McPartland when Ms. Jones was  
13 and hoarding bootleg cassettes of “Piano Jazz” — “You killed my  
social life, Marian,” she said — sang three standards in a row. They  
got progressively better: “Blame It on My Youth” was likable, but  
“Yesterdays,” sung at Ms. McPartland’s request, felt rewardingly like  
a stretch. For a moment Ms. Jones sounded like a true-blue jazz  
singer, even as she sounded like herself.

Ms. McPartland still has her pellucid touch and her careful yet  
comfortable style, as she demonstrated on several trio numbers,  
including “Turnaround,” a blues byOrnette Coleman. That tune can be  
heard on “Twilight World” (Concord), Ms. McPartland’s sparkling new  
studio album.

So can “Alfie,” the Burt Bacharach movie theme, which Ms. McPartland  
plays as a solo meditation. She included it in her set at Dizzy’s, and  
it was a quiet gem: sophisticated but simple, without an ounce of  
pretense or self-absorption. In other words, entirely appropriate.