Thursday, August 22, 2013

MARIAN MCPARTLAND JAZZ PIANIST DIES AT 95

The jazz music world's Marian McPartland died Tueday, August 20, 2013 at age 95.   This talented musical artist's unique life and achievements can be read about by clicking on this link to the New York Times article.  

She was featured on this blog five years ago and here's a link to that blog post Marian McPartland -- Happy 90th Birthday.    


Here's a special video profile of Marian McPartland: A Life of Jazz



Marian McPartland plays her "Afterglow" at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1975:




Marian McPartland plays "In A Mist"



Marian McPartland's music continues on CDs,  her NPR program recordings and her many record albums from yesteryear.  




7 comments:

  1. Dixieland is my kind of jazz. Yet I appreciate the free-form works she did so well. All three links were well worth a visit. Her great talent will be missed.

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  2. How sad to see her go. What a fantastic talent!

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  3. I hadn't seen or heard of her in soooooooooooooo long!!!!! I listenen to all the clips!!!!! Thanks!!!

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  4. Thanks for posting these clips. Having lost about 50 years of hearing, I confess I've never heard McPartland before, and she seems so calm. I've always thought of jazz as frenetic. In fact, it's clear I don't know much about jazz. I always thought it meant the performer made up his or her own variations on the original score. Or not? I should educate myself about this.

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    1. Much jazz is "calm" or not "frenetic" as you describe. Many tunes can be performed in more than one genre' depending on the arrangement, instrumentation -- pop, rock, even select country, others. Yes, some jazz does include variations as musicians spontaneously improvise within certain musical guidelines. Some tunes may simply be a melody that will be a solo focus of individual instruments i.e. with a piano, bass, guitar trio, etc. Some improvised solos can venture far afield -- sounding extreme to many ears, including my own on occasion. There are numerous types of jazz, too, i.e. Dixieland, as Dick mentioned is the form he prefers -- think New Orleans and the dixieland classic "When the Saints Go Marching In." Classical music pieces have their own highly structured forms of musical variations but I'm no expert on music's technical aspects whatever the genre'. I only know what appeals to my ear, resonates with my being, which is likely true for most of us. Why we prefer the music we do is interesting to consider.

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    2. P.S. Open Culture has this on Jazz Drumming. Which raises more questions, but I do love drumming since my grandson Sam was such an ace at it in middle school.

      http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/the-fundamentals-of-jazz-and-rock-drumming.html

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