Marian McPartland: Twilight World

Concord Records
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 4.3.08
Buy CD: Twilight World

One definition of legend is "a person who achieves legendary fame." 

The jazz world has produced a number of legends — Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman come to mind — but only a few are still with us. One of those, still performing, is pianist/composer Marian McPartland, who celebrated her 90th birthday March 21. 

Born in England in 1918, Margaret Marian Turner was a child prodigy who played piano by age 3. She was exposed to jazz in her teens and, from that moment on, her future was fixed. She enrolled in London's famous Guildhall School of Music in 1938; Billy Mayerl, at the time a famous music hall entertainer, asked her to join his four-piano stage act. She did so ... despite a financial bribe offered by her father if she'd complete her schooling. 

She performed on the vaudeville circuit, using the stage name of Marian Page. In 1944, while entertaining troops during World War II, she met Jimmy McPartland, a traditional cornetist from Chicago. They married the following year and, after war's end, McPartland brought his wife home to the Windy City. 

They worked there until 1949, at which point they moved to New York and soon were immersed in that jazz universe. From 1952 to '60, Marian led a trio at the Hickory House, a restaurant/jazz club on famous 52nd Street. Between sets and after work, she'd visit the other nearby clubs, to listen and learn. In 1978, she began her famous alliance with National Public Radio; Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz remains the network's longest-running cultural show. 

McPartland's attributes are many. She's an outstanding pianist, and her harmonic sense and innovative ability are second to none. If she played the same tune half a dozen times in straight succession, each rendition would be completely different. Additionally, her memory is prodigious; it's impossible to name a song she doesn't know. 

Most importantly, her style has grown with the time: No matter when she plays — or has played — she sounds "current." 

Twilight World is the 21st album McPartland has done for Concord Records during her 30-year association with the label; it's also her first studio release in nine years. 

Except for a short (and unsatisfying) stretch with Benny Goodman, McPartland has concentrated on performing with small jazz groups. That preference continues here, where she's backed by bassist Gary Mazaroppi and drummer Glen Davis. The album is living proof that she's as new and fresh as any instrumentalist on the scene. 

The nine tracks contain several of her own compositions and a few by Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans, along with some wonderful old standards. Needless to say, they all swing. 

As for retirement? 

McPartland already has guest artists lined up for the next two years of Piano Jazz. 

The lady is unbelievable, and this album is an absolute must-have. 

Holiday Jazz 2007: Quite a cool yule

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.13.07


[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene for roughly 12 years, with lengthy columns that just keep growing.]

OK, I admit it, I’m a holiday junkie. I’ve even got a new nickname: Captain Christmas.

Friends and family members just roll their eyes and shake their heads, when the calendar page flips from October to November, because they know what it means: Every free moment from that point onward is devoted to decorating the house ... first outside (gotta make it by Thanksgiving weekend!) and then inside.

Naturally, the proper mood must be set for such activities, and nothing keeps my spirits raised — particularly as I approach the conclusion of an all-day session — better than a toe-tapping, finger-snapping collection of Christmas jazz.

Having now been accumulating such albums for the better part of a quarter-century, I must have one of the best collections in the country ... with no end in sight.

Although mainstream labels have decreased their new releases during recent years, the flow has remained constant, thanks to Web sources such as cdbaby and www.ejazzlines.com. Both are excellent sites, and the latter even has a section devoted to holiday jazz.

One must apply a bit of caveat emptor to cdbaby, though; since the site stocks and sells pretty much everything submitted, one can bring home an eye-opening grade of trash.

Fortunately, I’m here to help spare the pain. Yes, I listen to the bad ones, just so you won’t wind up with a nasty surprise.

While 2007 has not been a banner year for new arrivals — very few must-have stand-outs — most of the albums cited below would rate a solid B on the standard grading scale. That still makes them eminently listenable, and therefore worth your time.

Moving to it, then...

Searching for cool new sounds is a full-time endeavor, and the Christmas jazz sub-genre is no different. As always, several titles came to my attention just after I published last year’s edition of this annual round-up, so I’ll start with those.

Credit for calling this first album to my attention goes to Shaunna Morrison Machosky, music director at the Pittsburgh-based National Public Radio station WDUQ, who in late 2006 published her list of “the best holiday jazz CDs.” She resisted adding the word “ever” to that title, but since her compilation includes Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song and Ella Fitzgerald’s Wishes You a Swingin’ Christmas, her taste obviously is impressively wide-ranging.

Machosky’s list concluded with Diane Delin’s Offerings for a Peaceable Season (Blujazz BJ3351), and I was drawn to it by virtue of Delin’s instrument of choice: the violin.

Jazz violin, I hear you cry?

Indeed. This tasty little album proves that strings can swing, particularly when accompanied by solid support from a piano-bass-percussion trio. The tone is mostly quiet and contemplative, with several tracks — notably “My Favorite Things” and “Winter Wonderland” — demonstrating a gentle, Latin-hued samba beat that serves as ample foundation for Delin’s sassy violin chops.

I also like her program choice; she goes for lesser-known carols such as the traditional “Gloucestershire Wassail,” Victor Herbert’s “Toyland” and a lively bop version of the overture to Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” (rapidly becoming a holiday staple).
Delin’s handling of “Deck the Halls,” with its piano and bass underscore, reminds me of Duke Pearson’s classic arrangement of “Sleigh Ride”; the result is impossible to resist.

She’s also a generous leader; an exquisitely pretty reading of “Petit Papa Noel” grants a full three minutes to pianist Dennis Luxion and bassist Eric Hochberg, before Delin’s violin finally weighs in.

She brings the set to a lively conclusion with her own up-tempo reading of “Sleigh Ride,” and I immediately wanted to listen to the entire album again. So will you.

Holiday Jazz 2003: God rest ye merry, jazzmen (and women)

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.7.03

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene since the late 1990s, with lengthy columns that just keep growing.]


I must’ve hit Santa’s good list, because this year’s crop of holiday jazz is quite impressive.

And the best news: Straight-ahead jazz is reclaiming the throne co-opted by elevator music.

As a result of two trends in the 1980s and ’90s — the success of Windham Hill’s signature sound, and the revival of lounge music — “jazz” was transmogrified into an all-encompassing designation that included everything from monotonous synth slush to puerile E-Z listening schlock.

Every half-baked solo instrumentalist (most often a sax player) with access to a computer cranked out monotonous covers of the usual suspects — “Jingle Bells,” “The Christmas Song” and “Silent Night” among the worst offenders — that were virtually indistinguishable. And no wonder: The programmed “fill” and percussion sections were an infantile insult to true musicians.

On the positive side, the Internet has turned my annual search into a true treasure hunt, since imagination is required to track down the offerings from micro-labels. Mind you, “homemade” isn’t necessarily a pejorative these days; CD technology has turned living rooms into high-tech recording studios, and Web sites provide the best in free advertising to the entire world.

The Web’s streaming radio networks can be quite useful (although registration might be required). Two of the largest — Christmasradio.com and Christmasradionetwork.com — play the sounds of the season 24/7. As-yet undiscovered artists also post their efforts, often as downloadable MP3 files, at Web “collectives” such as CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com), which had hundreds of holiday-themed albums that I’d never before encountered, several of them mentioned below. But be careful: Some of the “artists” you’ll find at CD Baby and its clones deserve to remain undiscovered.

Let’s start out with a few carryovers that arrived too late to be included in my 2002 survey. First up is producer Stix Hooper’s Jazz Yule Love (Mack Avenue Records, MAC 1007), a grand anthology of tracks by numerous jazz stars. The album’s standout cuts are a swinging reading of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by the Pete Jolly Trio (Jolly on piano, Chuck Berghoffer on bass, Nick Martinis on drums); and a show-stopping cover of “Angels We Have Heard on High” by the Eugene Maslov Trio (Maslov on piano, Boris Kozlov on bass, Joe LaBarbera on drums).

Not everything is up-tempo and fierce. Two of the album’s other high points are solos: tenor saxman Teddy Edwards’ poignant cover of “Silent Night,” and Maslov’s melancholy interpretation of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” The one jarring note comes from Les McCann, who delivers a frankly weird original dubbed “Christmas Heart” (no doubt included because of Hooper’s participation on drums).

Holiday Jazz 1998: Plenty of seasonal swing

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.17.98

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — began surveying the annual holiday jazz scene in 1997.]


Say what you will about holiday madness — the glitz, the hype, the hysterical shoppers, several dozen competing productions of The Nutcracker — but there’s no denying the appeal of holiday music.

Particularly holiday jazz.

No seasonal trauma is so great that it can’t be alleviated by a warm fire, a warmer companion and a soulful interpretation of “Silent Night” or “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by the likes of Oscar Peterson or Dave Brubeck.

Those gentleman, of course, are the talents of Christmas Past: Their holiday CDs are established treasures at this point.

I’m concerned today with the talents of Christmas Present, and — as has been the case in recent years — the pickings are mighty impressive.

Time was, you couldn’t find any of this stuff until well into December, and it would be smooshed together into a single — frequently unlabeled — bin toward the back of most music stores. These days, the “Christmas Music” section appears in mid-November and often stretches for an entire row, with sub-headings for Pop, Country, Jazz, Spiritual and New Age.

Preparing for a round-up of this sort naturally demands that the dedicated listener — that would be me — pops the new releases onto the CD player several weeks before Thanksgiving, while praying that nobody else (except the patient and long-suffering spouse) notices. But I figure if the artists can record this stuff in mid-summer, as often occurs, then it’s no less bizarre for me to accelerate the season a bit by playing it a fortnight or two early.

Hey, it’s a dirty job...

Not that long ago, the albums in my holiday jazz collection could have been counted on the fingers of both hands. These days, I’m lucky if 10 fingers are enough to catalog the number of new entries per year. Jazz covers of familiar Christmas songs have become one of the music medium’s growth industries, but increased quantity does not — alas! — guarantee increased quality.

Even so, several of the 1998 releases quickly rose to the top of my must-play list, and Christmas with the George Shearing Quintet (Telarc CD-83438) immediately comes to mind. You can’t beat Shearing’s gentle touch on piano, and he’s ably assisted by Reg Schwager (guitar), Don Thompson (vibraphone), Neil Swainson (bass) and Dennis Mackrel (drums).

Shearing’s approach to these familiar tunes is playful: His rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” includes a prominent “Birdland” riff, and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” is played against the familiar 5/4 “Take Five” bass-line beat.

Not everything is ideal: Shearing’s rendition of the 17th century French carol “Noel nouvelet” is a bit slow and weird, and I could have lived without his vocal accompaniment on “It’s Christmas Time.” (Why do some of these musicians insist on singing???)

Such minor quibbles aside, this is a tasty little album. You won’t embarrass yourself with this on the player, no matter who shows up for dinner.