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Show 35 MARIAN McPARTLAND name she never liked. “I like to ‘say | was born near Castle, which is true. Members of my family actually had homes inside As a youngster, a told me, she studied violin but didn't like it and moved on to EARLY FOUR decades ago, in the summer of ’58, many of the greatest jazz musicians in this country gathered on a sidewalk in Harlem to pose for a photo for Esquire magazine. Amongthe 57 musicians were Count Basie, Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus. Those jazz greats —andthat photo by Art Kane— inspired a documentary called A Great Dayin Harlem, which was nominated for anOscar and honored at the Smithsonian.It will be televised this fall on Cinemax. Le jazz hot, as the Frenchcall it, has been around a long time— and so has the magnificent jazz pianist Marian McPartland, who, as a young blond Englishwoman, already wassufficiently celebrated to be among those jazz immortals whogathered in 1958. Wegot together recently totalk jazz over tea in the lobbyof the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. McPartland was elegant in a silk dress, gold earnecklace—plus, to my dismay,a blacksling on herleft arm. “It's nothing,” she assured me. “Somethingstupid. I'll be able to play by the weekend.” For years she has lived on Long Island, in a house in Port Washington from which she sallies forth on a regular schedule of concert and club dates and to do her awardwinning Piano Jazz show on National Public Radio. But Marian has been thinking of moving toa Manhattan apartment since the death of her husband, Jimmy McPartland, himselfa jazz legend on trumpet. The two were married for pee remained close evenafter a divorce, then remarried two weeks ‘sais BRADY before Jimmydied. How they met is the stuffof old MGM musicals. Cut to World War II. “I joined the British equivalentof the USO,” Marian told me. “Right after DDay, we wentinto France to entertain the troops.Jimmy was from Chicago. He was famous even then,but the Army had him manning an ack-ack gun when we met.” After Jimmy was allowed to get backtoentertaining the guys, Marian continued, “there we were in @ weapons-carrier—the band and Jimmy and me anda girl singer.” The two were wed in Aachen, one ofthe first big German towns to be captured by the Allies, “The Armygaveusa car to go to Brussels for a week's honeymoon,”recalled Marian. “Jimmywasa pioneer ofthe white [jazz] groups. He grew up with Louis Armstrong, and | was fortunate enough to get to know Louis. What made him so Married to Jimmy MoPartland, 194570 and in 1991. Highlights: special? His horn-playing, his singaes always had that gravel he wasa good pers These days, while Marianis elated by the rise of brilliant y erjazz artists like Wynton Marsalis, as well as the revived interest in the old-timers in that famous Harlem , She’s worried about cuts in federal funding for National Public Radio. “They just want a blue-collar world,it seems to me,”she said of the budget-cutters. “J went down to Washington [to protest the NPR cuts]. I also wrote letters. But the cuts ended up not as bad as we thought they'd be, and Piano Jazz is pretty secure.” Marian told me she enjoys a complimentshe gets occasionally when meeting people who know herartistry only overthe radio, ““T thought you were black,’ they say.” And how does Marian respond? “I say, “Thank you.’” 1 PAGE 14» AUGUST 6, 1996 - PARADE MAGAZINE |