Roberta Piket One For Marian Celebrating Marian Mcpartland

With her long-running series on public radio, Marian McPartland has seemed to many fans to always be a part of jazz. Just a few months shy of celebrating her 90th birthday at the time of these 2007 sessions, the pianist demonstrates why she has been able to play with so many different guests on her program. But this is a regular trio date with her attentive, longtime rhythm section, bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Glenn Davis. It's hard not to be enchanted immediately with new versions of her upbeat "Twilight World" and the elegant "In the Days of Our Love," the latter played with a hint of looking back on life without getting overly sentimental. McPartland has long been praised as a masterful interpreter of ballads, so her lyrical takes of "Close Enough for Love" and "Alfie" only serve to reinforce her strength in that department…

Contrasts is a two-fer collection of work by pianist Marian McPartland featuring the albums Plays the Music of Alec Wilder and Marian and Jimmy McPartland: A Sentimental Journey. Showcasing the exquisite playing of the NPR jazz host, both albums are worth checking out. Disc one should appeal to longtime McPartland fans with the pianist working through the compositions of Alec Wilder in a straight-ahead trio style. Disc two, though, is the real revelation, with McPartland joining her cornetist/vocalist husband, Jimmy, and his New Orleans trad-style band for a live date. The music is much hotter than McPartland's solo work - she "comps" beautifully behind soloists - and it's a treat to hear her in this more bluesy, extroverted context.

Marian McPartland celebrated her 85th birthday in style by hosting a lively session at Birdland with many guests (both young and old) who have appeared on her long-running NPR series. Whether she's a part of the audience or on-stage jamming with her friends, it's apparent that everyone in the club is having a blast. The romp through "I Love You" features potent solos by Phil Woods, Dave Douglas, Ravi Coltrane, and McPartland. Woods captivates the audience with his impressive solo introduction to singer Karrin Allyson, and captures the essence of the pianist's gorgeous "Twilight World" in a duet with its composer. Norah Jones is at her very best with the pianist interpreting timeless ballads like "The Nearness of You" and "September Song"…

This is the latest addtion to the highly regarded CD series, MARIAN MCPARTLAND'S PIANO JAZZ, which is take from Ms. McParland's highly successful and long-running NPR program. This album features stripped-down, live-in-the-studio performances of Steely Dan Classic "Josie," "Black Friday," and "Chain Lightning."

Marian McPartland has continued to grow as a musician over her long career, constantly exploring new songs and new styles while rekindling standards and jazz classics with her own distinctive touch at the keyboard. This pair of 1995 sessions at the Yoshi's Nitespot in Oakland, CA, feature her in a trio setting with bassist Bill Douglass and drummer Glenn Davis. She slowly percolates a driving bop arrangement of "Like Someone in Love," and her striking approach to "If I Should Lose You" conveys the emotion of the song even though the lyric isn't heard. She also ventures into modern Broadway with a mesmerizing waltz interpretation of the ballad "Pretty Women" (from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd)…

Here is a mismatch if there ever was one - or so it would appear. The always-elegant, always-spacious and graceful Marian McPartland, queen of the NPR program Piano Jazz, playing live with bluesed-out bebop reveler Willie Pickens in a live setting. But that's as far as contradictions go. This pair knows how to put together a program of piano duets and stress their differences rather than their similarities. It is as simple as sitting down Earl Hines and Fats Waller at the keys and telling them to go for it, that's how different these styles are. But somehow it works, and works so well that the listener will be stunned to know this was a one-off…

Most NPR listeners have heard of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, which has been on the air for over 25 years. As wonderful as the radio program is, however, her close association with the show has made it difficult for jazz fans to remember her full contribution to the genre. Though many McPartland recordings exist, Windows is a fine repackaging of two of her best, Portrait of Marian McPartland from 1979 and At the Festival from 1980. Both feature the pianist in snug quartets, the first featuring alto Jerry Dodgion, drummer Jake Hanna, and bassist Brian Torff, the latter with Torff, Hanna, and alto Mary Fettig. A quick glance at both set lists identifies McPartland as a player comfortable in a number of styles, from standards like Rodgers & Hart's "It Never Entered My Mind" and Duke Ellington's "Cotton Tail" to the post-bop of Chick Corea's "Windows" and Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me a Bedtime Story"…