Margaret Marian McPartland OBE (born Turner; March 20, 1918 – August 20, 2013) was an English and American jazz pianist, composer, and writer. She hosted a radio show called Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio from 1978 to 2011.

After marrying trumpeter Jimmy McPartland in February 1945, she lived in the United States most of the time, except when traveling worldwide for performances. In 1969, she started Halcyon Records, a company that released music albums for 10 years. In 2000, she was honored as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. In 2004, she received a Grammy Award for her lifetime of work. In 2007, she was added to the National Radio Hall of Fame. Though best known for jazz, she also created other kinds of music. In 2007, she performed her own orchestral piece, A Portrait of Rachel Carson, with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, she became a member of the Order of the British Empire.

Early life

Margaret Marian Turner was born on 20 March 1918 to Frank and Janet (née Payne) Turner in Slough, Buckinghamshire, west of central London, England. She had one younger sibling, a sister named Joyce. She showed talent for playing the piano early in life. Later, she discovered she had perfect pitch. Margaret (called Maggie by her family) began studying the violin at age nine but did not enjoy the instrument. She also trained as a singer and received positive comments in the local newspaper. Janet, Margaret’s mother, did not find a piano teacher for her until she was 16. By that time, Margaret had already learned songs by listening to them. This lack of early lessons meant she was not skilled at reading sheet music and preferred to learn music by listening instead.

Turner attended Miss Hammond's School for Young Children from 1924 to 1927, Avonclyffe from 1927 to 1929, Holy Trinity Convent from 1929 to 1933, and Stratford House for Girls from 1933 to 1935. At Stratford House, she met Doris Mackie, a teacher who greatly influenced her. Mackie advised Margaret’s parents to apply to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, as Margaret clearly had a talent and love for music. Margaret was accepted in the spring of 1935 because of her "great enthusiasm, natural ability, and lots of imagination," even though she "lacked proper technique."

Early career (Europe)

Turner studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she worked toward a degree in performing arts to become a concert pianist. She also took classes in vocal performance. She studied with Orlando Morgan, who also taught Myra Hess. Turner’s skills in improvisation and composition were recognized early when she won the Wainwright Memorial Scholarship for Composition, the Worshipful Company of Musicians Composition Scholarship, and the Chairman's School Composition Prize in 1936 and 1937. Her family was unhappy when she developed an interest in American jazz and musicians such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, and Mary Lou Williams. In 1938, Turner went to Billy Mayerl’s School of Modern Syncopation to take lessons and was asked to audition for his piano quartet. Despite her family’s attempts to keep her at Guildhall, she left to join Billy Mayerl’s Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act. There, she performed under the stage name Marian Page. She promised her family she would return to finish her degree at Guildhall. After the Claviers tour, Marian returned to London in the fall of 1938 and played occasionally for shows and on the Carroll Lewis Show. To avoid being drafted during World War II, she joined the Entertainment National Service Association (ENSA), a group that performed for Allied troops, in fall 1940. In 1944, her friend Zonie Dale suggested Marian join the United Service Organizations (USO) because they offered better pay and allowed her to perform with American musicians.

With the USO, Marian completed basic training and received combat gear, including GI boots, a helmet, and a uniform. She was assigned to a group called the Band Wagon, which followed Allied forces after the D-Day invasion. To prepare for wartime needs, Marian learned to play the accordion in case no piano was available.

In St. Vith, Belgium, on October 14, 1944, Marian met a Chicago cornetist named Jimmy McPartland at a jam session. McPartland had joined the army, but his superiors realized he was better suited for entertainment because he was well-known among troops. Jimmy was asked to form a sextet to entertain soldiers and invited Marian to be their pianist. They fell in love and signed a US Army marriage document on December 14, 1944. They married on February 3, 1945, in Aachen, Germany, and had a wedding at their military base. Marian gained US citizenship through her marriage to an American, while keeping her British citizenship. She avoided telling her parents about the marriage and had Jimmy’s commanding officer inform them during a visit to England in early 1945. It was with Jimmy that Marian began serious training in jazz. Jimmy and Marian made their first recording together on January 6, 1946, in London before moving to the United States. They arrived in New York City on April 23, 1946, and Marian never lived outside the US again. However, she maintained her British citizenship throughout her life.

Early career (Chicago 1946–50 and New York City 1950–62)

After the war, Marian and Jimmy moved to Chicago to be near his family. Jimmy grew up in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago and was one of the first members of the Austin High Gang, a group that played Chicago-style Dixieland jazz in the 1920s. In June 1946, Marian performed for the first time in America at the Moose Lodge. Soon after, Jimmy's group, which now included Marian, began a regular job at the Rose Bowl until the end of 1946. This was followed by performances at Taboo, Capitol Lounge, and Brass Rail. Marian did well in Jimmy's group and through her work with him. They performed at clubs like Blue Note and Silhouette with famous musicians such as Billie Holiday.

During their time in Chicago, Jimmy and Marian visited France in 1949 for the Paris Jazz Festival. This event was somewhat important for their connection to the European jazz scene, but it was more significant because it marked the start of Marian's writing career. Marian wrote about the festival, and her article appeared in the July 1949 issue of DownBeat.

In 1949, the McPartlands moved to Manhattan and lived in an apartment in the same building as the Nordstrom Sisters. In 1950, Marian announced she would no longer use her stage name, Marian Page, but would instead use her married name, Marian McPartland. With Jimmy's support, Marian formed her own trio. The group began performing at a new club on 54th Street called The Embers on May 8, 1951. There, she learned how to lead her group and played with musicians like Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, and Terry Gibbs. After trying different combinations, she settled on a trio with piano, bass, and drums, a setup that became common later. This job led to a positive review in DownBeat by Leonard Feather, who wrote that French fans might not accept her because "She is English, white, and a girl—three disadvantages from the French perspective. However, if you ask Coleman Hawkins or other musicians, they would say she is a skilled pianist." Marian sometimes said Feather's comment was "Oh, she'll never make it: she's English, white, and a woman." In 1951, she signed her first record deal with Savoy Records. On February 2, 1952, McPartland began a regular job at the Hickory House, which continued until November 1962. During this time, Duke Ellington often attended her performances. Ellington influenced McPartland's development as a pianist and told her she played too many notes, a piece of advice she remembered. In 1953, the drummer Joe Morello joined the group and stayed until he left to join Dave Brubeck's Quartet in late 1956. In December 1953, Bill Crow replaced Vinnie Burke as her bass player. The trio of McPartland, Morello, and Crow remained together until 1956 and was named Small Group of the Year by Metronome in 1954. The success of this trio led to McPartland signing with Capitol Records for five albums. This group became her most well-known trio. Some people have said McPartland did not receive the recognition she deserved because she did not stay with the same musicians long enough to develop a unique sound, except for her 1953–1956 group.

In 1956, McPartland and Morello began a relationship that lasted nearly ten years. In late 1956, Morello's wife discovered their relationship, and Brubeck hired Morello away.

McPartland continued writing articles for journals like DownBeat after her first piece was well received in 1949. By the late 1950s, she began writing about the challenges of being a woman in jazz. She asked, "Can't women make their own contribution to jazz by playing like women, but still include the key parts of jazz—good rhythm, good ideas, honesty, and true emotion?"

In the 1953–54 season, McPartland regularly appeared on NBC's Judge for Yourself quiz show, hosted by Fred Allen.

In 1958, a black-and-white photo of 57 famous jazz musicians, including McPartland, was taken in front of a brownstone in Harlem, New York City. Art Kane, a photographer for Esquire magazine, took the photo, which became known as A Great Day in Harlem. It became a famous image of New York's jazz musicians at the time. Just before her death in August 2013, she was one of only four of the 57 musicians in the photo who were still alive. After recording for many labels, including Capitol, Savoy, Argo, Sesac, Time, and Dot, she started her own record label, Halcyon Records, in 1969. She later had a long partnership with the Concord label. Marian and Jimmy divorced in 1972 but stayed close and remarried in 1991, shortly before Jimmy's death.

Mid-career (New York City 1962–78)

After McPartland’s engagement at Hickory House ended, Benny Goodman invited her to join his septet for his 1963 tour. Soon, Goodman did not like her newer style of playing, so she stopped performing in the full septet and only played in the trio numbers. The stress and challenges from the past few years made Marian feel very tired during the tour. After the tour ended, she went to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, for two weeks as an outpatient. There, she met Dr. William Benjamin, a mental health doctor who would help her for many years.

McPartland’s work with Dr. Benjamin helped her make important decisions. First, she ended her relationship with Morello in the spring of 1964. Second, she decided to divorce Jimmy in the summer of 1967. Her divorce was announced publicly in December 1967. Even after the divorce, Marian and Jimmy stayed close friends and later married again just weeks before Jimmy’s death in 1991.

In the late 1960s, McPartland started reviewing music albums for DownBeat. Between 1966 and 1969, she reviewed 34 albums. Her reviews were special because she had experience as a musician herself. After 1969, she stopped reviewing albums but continued writing teaching materials. In May 1966, she began hosting a radio show called A Delicate Balance, which aired every Saturday for two hours. The show started with traditional music but later included interviews. These interviews helped prepare the way for her later radio series, Piano Jazz.

Marian found it hard to connect with the experimental jazz of the late 1960s, though she tried to learn and use the free jazz style in her own music. She was not in high demand as a performer during the 1960s, so she focused more on teaching jazz. Marian became interested in jazz education after she was asked to lead a workshop at a high school in Rochester, New York, in 1956. She noticed that the students knew little about jazz and were instead excited about rock and roll. In 1964, she started teaching at jazz clinics organized by Clem DeRosa, a former drummer. DeRosa was creating a jazz curriculum in the Huntington, New York school district. In 1966, DeRosa received a grant to improve his program and moved to Cold Spring Harbor High School. Through this grant, he paid Marian to teach full-time until 1967. McPartland continued teaching in jazz education for many years. One of her most difficult projects was in 1974, when she received a grant to teach in poor Black neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. In 1986, she was honored with the Jazz Educator of the Year award. She kept teaching and judging jazz festivals for young people for the rest of her life.

In February 1967, during a performance at the Apartment, a New York club, Marian met Alec Wilder. They became close friends, and he encouraged her to write and compose music. They met again when Marian was touring in Rochester, and they began a partnership that was important but also challenging. In 1974, Marian recorded an album titled Marian McPartland Plays the Music of Alec Wilder, which was released by Halcyon Records.

After recording for many labels, including Capitol, Savoy, Argo, Sesac, Time, Design, and Dot Records, McPartland co-founded her own record label, Halcyon Records, in 1969. She later worked with Concord Records for many years. Halcyon Records was started with Sherman Fairchild and Hank O’Neal. The label aimed to support jazz artists who were not widely recognized. Their first album was Interplay, a duet recording with bassist Linc Milliman. Fairchild died in 1971, and McPartland bought out O’Neal to keep the label for future projects. The last Halcyon Records album was released in 1979.

By 1977, McPartland became an advocate for women in jazz and led the first Women’s Jazz Festival in Kansas City from March 17 to 19, 1978. In the late 1970s, she performed internationally, including in Asia, Europe, South America, and across the United States. McPartland rarely included women in her musical groups but helped many young women begin careers in jazz, such as Mary Fettig and Susannah McCorkle.

McPartland appeared in The New Yorker on December 5, 1977, in the "Goings on About Town" section, describing her regular performances at the Bemelmans Bar (at the Carlyle Hotel) from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Mondays through Saturdays. This was likely a job she held in 1977.

In 1978, McPartland performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Most critics did not praise the performance, but she later played the piece with many orchestras across the country. Because she had trouble reading music quickly, she learned the piece mainly by listening to it.

Late career (Piano Jazzand on)

In 1964, Marian McPartland started a new radio program on WBAI-FM in New York City. The show included music recordings and interviews with guests. Pacifica Radio’s stations on the West Coast also broadcast the program. This series helped start Piano Jazz, a National Public Radio (NPR) show that began recording on October 8, 1978, and first aired on April 1, 1979, on WLTR in South Carolina. NPR later shared the program nationwide. McPartland was chosen to host the show mainly because of a recommendation from her friend Alec Wilder, who had hosted American Popular Song until his health made it difficult for him to continue. Piano Jazz became the longest-running cultural program on NPR and one of the longest-running jazz programs ever on public radio. The show’s theme, “Kaleidoscope,” was written by McPartland. Each episode featured McPartland playing the piano with guest performers, such as pianists, singers, guitarists, and other musicians. Studs Terkel, a writer who was not a musician, also appeared as a guest. The first episode aired on April 1, 1979, with guest Mary Lou Williams. Many Piano Jazz episodes were later released on CD by Concord Records.

In 1984, Piano Jazz received the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. In 1986, it won the Gabriel Award and the NY Gold Medal Awards.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NPR series, McPartland hosted a live recording at the Kennedy Center with guest Peter Cincotti. After not recording a new episode since September 2010, NPR announced in November 2011 that McPartland would no longer host Piano Jazz. She then asked her longtime friend, jazz pianist Jon Weber, to take over the show. As a result, Piano Jazz: Rising Stars, an NPR series hosted by Weber, began on January 3, 2012. Piano Jazz later returned to the air as a repeat broadcast. Because of McPartland’s growing fame, especially from Piano Jazz, she began appearing at more important events and recording more often. McPartland was admired for helping bring more people to jazz clubs who had not been included in the past. She also used her popularity to support young artists and include them in her performances.

In 1979, McPartland received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to write a book about women in jazz, focusing on the group The International Sweethearts of Rhythm. This project was later supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980. Although she published a draft essay in June 1980, she struggled to finish her book. In the early 1980s, many books about women in jazz were published, including interviews with people she had also interviewed, which made her research less unique. She eventually published a collection of 13 essays titled All in Good Time in 1987. McPartland tried to write her autobiography with the help of Alec Wilder for many years but never finished the project.

Death and legacy

DownBeat recognized McPartland with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994.

In 2004, McPartland received a Grammy and a Trustees' Lifetime Achievement Award for her work as an educator, writer, and host of NPR Radio's long-running program, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. She was skilled at adapting to the musical styles of her guests and had a strong love for beautiful and rich ballads. She also composed many of her own songs, including "Ambiance," "There'll Be Other Times," "With You in Mind," "Twilight World," and "In the Days of Our Love."

Just before her 90th birthday, McPartland composed and performed a symphonic piece called A Portrait of Rachel Carson to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the environmental pioneer.

In 2010, McPartland was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours, "For services to jazz and to aspiring young musicians in the USA."

McPartland had a vast knowledge of jazz standards, a strong musical ear, and over 60 years of experience with changing jazz styles. She was known for blending well with radio guests and creating a musical style described as "flexible and complex, and almost impossible to categorize." She was also recognized as a highly creative improviser who always sought to improve and explore new musical ideas.

McPartland was a synesthete, meaning she connected different musical keys with specific colors. She said, "The key of D is daffodil yellow, B major is maroon, and B flat is blue."

McPartland passed away at her home in Port Washington, New York, on August 20, 2013. She was 95 years old.

Discography

• Jazz at Storyville (Savoy, 1951)
• Lullaby of Birdland (Savoy, 1952)
• Marian McPartland Trio (Savoy, 1952)
• The Magnificent Marian McPartland at the Piano (Savoy, 1952)
• Moods (Savoy, 1953)
• Jazz at the Hickory House (Savoy, 1953)
• Marian McPartland at the Hickory House (Capitol, 1954)
• Marian McPartland After Dark (Capitol, 1956)
• The Marian McPartland Trio (Capitol, 1956)
• Marian McPartland Trio with Strings: With You in Mind (Capitol, 1957)
• Marian McPartland Trio: At the London House (Argo, 1958)
• Marian McPartland Plays Music of Leonard Bernstein (Time, 1960)
• Jimmy and Marian McPartland Play TV Themes (Design, 1960)
• Marian McPartland: Bossa Nova + Soul (Time, 1963)
• She Swings with Strings (Marian McPartland with the Frank Hunter Orchestra) (Sesac, 1964)
• My Old Flame: Marian McPartland Performs the Classic Hits of Sam Coslow (Dot, 1968)
• Interplay (Halcyon, 1969)
• Elegant Piano: Solos and Duets by Teddy Wilson and Marian McPartland (Halcyon, 1970)
• Marian McPartland: A Delicate Balance (Halcyon, 1972)
• Live at the Monticello: Jimmy and Marian McPartland (Halcyon, 1972)
• Swingin': Marian and Jimmy McPartland and Guests (Halcyon, 1973)
• Marian McPartland: Plays the Music of Alec Wilder (Halcyon, 1974)
• Marian McPartland: Solo Concert at Haverford (Halcyon, 1974)
• Let It Happen (RCA, 1974) as the Jazz Piano Quartet with Dick Hyman, Hank Jones and Roland Hanna
• The Maestro and Friend: Marian McPartland and Joe Venuti (Halcyon, 1974)
• Concert in Argentina: Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Marian McPartland, Ellis Larkins (Halcyon, 1974)
• Marian McPartland: Plays the Music of Alec Wilder (Halcyon, 1974)
• Live in Tokyo: Marian McPartland and Hank Jones (TDK, 1976)
• Now's the Time (Halcyon, 1977)
• Tony Bennett, the McPartlands, and Friends Make Magnificent Music (Improv, 1977)
• From This Moment On (Concord, 1978)
• Marian McPartland: Live at the Carlyle (Halcyon, 1979)
• Ambiance (Jazz Alliance, 1970)
• At the Festival (Concord, 1979)
• Portrait of Marian McPartland (Concord, 1980)
• Marian McPartland: At the Festival (Concord, 1980)
• Marian McPartland and George Shearing: Alone Together (Concord, 1982)
• Personal Choice (Concord, 1982)
• Willow Creek and Other Ballads (Concord, 1985)
• Marian McPartland Plays the Music of Billy Strayhorn (Concord, 1987)
• Marian

Awards

• Bates College
• Berklee College of Music
• Bowling Green State University
• City University of New York
• Eastman School of Music
• Hamilton College
• Ithaca College
• Union College
• University of South Carolina

• 2007 – National Radio Hall of Fame
• 2006 – Long Island Music Hall of Fame induction
• 2004 – Grammy Trustees Award from the Recording Academy
• 2004 – Sapientia et Doctrina award, from Fordham University, NYC
• 2001 – American Eagle Award from the National Music Council
• 2001 – Gracie Allen Award from the American Women in Radio and Television
• 2000 – NEA Jazz Masters Award
• 2000 – Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award
• 1994 – Down Beat Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1991 – ASCAP – Deems Taylor Award
• 1986 – International Jazz Association of Jazz Education Hall of Fame induction
• 1983 – Peabody Award