Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE (née Turner; 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013… Read Full Bio ↴Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE (née Turner; 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English-born jazz pianist, composer, and writer. She was the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio from 1978 until 2011.
After her marriage to Jimmy McPartland in February 1945, she resided in the USA when not traveling throughout the world to perform. In 1969 she founded Halcyon Records, a recording company that produced albums for ten years. In 2000 she was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. In 2004 she was given a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. In 2007 she was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Known mostly for jazz, nonetheless, she composed other types of music as well, performing her own symphonic work A Portrait of Rachel Carson with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra in 2007. In 2010 she was named a member of the Order of the British Empire.
Margaret Marian Turner was a musical prodigy from the time she could sit at the piano, about the age of three. She studied classical music and the violin, in addition to the piano.
She pursued classical studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Much to the dismay of her family, she developed a love for American jazz and musicians such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Mary Lou Williams, and many others. In 1938, despite her family's efforts to keep her at Guildhall, Marian left to join Billy Mayerl's Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act, performing under the stage name of Marian Page. The group toured throughout Europe during World War II, entertaining Allied troops.
While touring with USO shows in Belgium, she met and began performing with Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland in 1944. The couple soon married, playing at their own military base wedding in Germany. After the war, they moved to Chicago to be near Jimmy's family. Then, in 1949, the McPartlands settled in Manhattan, living in an apartment in the same building as the Nordstrom Sisters. With Jimmy's help and encouragement, Marian started her own trio, which performed at The Embers from 1950, and subsequently enjoyed a long residency at a New York City jazz club, the Hickory House, during 1952–60. The drummer Joe Morello was a member of the group until he departed to join Dave Brubeck's Quartet.
In the 1953–54 season, she appeared as a regular on NBC's Judge for Yourself quiz program emceed by Fred Allen.
In 1958 a black and white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians, including McPartland, was photographed in front of a brownstone in Harlem, New York City. Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the photo, which was called, "A Great Day in Harlem", and it became a well-known image of New York's jazz musicians of the time. Immediately preceding her death in August 2013, she was one of only four of the 57 participating musicians who were still alive. After many years of recording for labels such as Capitol, Savoy, Argo, Sesac, Time, and Dot, in 1969 she founded her own record label, Halcyon Records, before having a long association with the Concord label. Marian and Jimmy divorced in 1972, but they remained close, and remarried in 1991, shortly before Jimmy's death.
In 1964, Marian McPartland launched a new venture on WBAI-FM (New York City), conducting a weekly radio program that featured recordings and interviews with guests. Pacifica Radio's West Coast stations also carried this series, which paved the way for Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, a National Public Radio series that began on 4 June 1978. It was the longest-running cultural program on NPR, as well as one of the longest-running jazz programs ever produced on public radio. The program featured McPartland at the keyboard with guest performers, usually pianists, but also singers, guitarists, other musicians, and even the non-musician Studs Terkel. Several Piano Jazz programs have been released on CD by Concord Records. She celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the NPR series with a live taping at the Kennedy Center for which Peter Cincotti was the guest. After not having recorded a new show since September 2010, on 10 November 2011, NPR announced that McPartland was stepping down as host of Piano Jazz. She then asked her long-time friend, jazz pianist Jon Weber, to carry on with the show. As a result, Piano Jazz: Rising Stars, an NPR series hosted by Weber, began broadcast on 3 January 2012. Piano Jazz soon returned to the air in repeat broadcasts.
Marian was awarded a Grammy in 2004, a Trustees' Lifetime Achievement Award, for her work as an educator, writer, and host of NPR Radio's long-running Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Although a master at adapting to her guest's musical styles and having a well-known affinity for beautiful and harmonically-rich ballads, she also recorded many tunes of her own. Her compositions included "Ambiance," "There'll Be Other Times," "With You In Mind," "Twilight World," and "In the Days of Our Love."
Just before her 90th birthday, she composed and performed a symphonic piece, A Portrait of Rachel Carson, to mark the centennial of the environmental pioneer.
McPartland was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours, "For services to jazz and to aspiring young musicians in the USA".
McPartland's encyclopedic knowledge of jazz standards, highly musical ear, involvement in over 60 years of evolving jazz styles, and rich experience blending with radio guests led to a musical style that was described as "flexible and complex, and almost impossible to pigeonhole." She was known as a harmonically and rhythmically complex and inventive improviser. "She was never content to be in one place, and always kept improving. She has great ears and great harmonics. Because of her ear, she can go into two or three different keys in a tune and shift with no problem."
She was also a synesthete, associating different musical keys with colors, stating that "The key of D is daffodil yellow, B major is maroon, and B flat is blue."
McPartland died on 20 August 2013 of natural causes at her home in Long Island, New York. She was 95 years old.
After her marriage to Jimmy McPartland in February 1945, she resided in the USA when not traveling throughout the world to perform. In 1969 she founded Halcyon Records, a recording company that produced albums for ten years. In 2000 she was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. In 2004 she was given a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. In 2007 she was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Known mostly for jazz, nonetheless, she composed other types of music as well, performing her own symphonic work A Portrait of Rachel Carson with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra in 2007. In 2010 she was named a member of the Order of the British Empire.
Margaret Marian Turner was a musical prodigy from the time she could sit at the piano, about the age of three. She studied classical music and the violin, in addition to the piano.
She pursued classical studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Much to the dismay of her family, she developed a love for American jazz and musicians such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Mary Lou Williams, and many others. In 1938, despite her family's efforts to keep her at Guildhall, Marian left to join Billy Mayerl's Claviers, a four-piano vaudeville act, performing under the stage name of Marian Page. The group toured throughout Europe during World War II, entertaining Allied troops.
While touring with USO shows in Belgium, she met and began performing with Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland in 1944. The couple soon married, playing at their own military base wedding in Germany. After the war, they moved to Chicago to be near Jimmy's family. Then, in 1949, the McPartlands settled in Manhattan, living in an apartment in the same building as the Nordstrom Sisters. With Jimmy's help and encouragement, Marian started her own trio, which performed at The Embers from 1950, and subsequently enjoyed a long residency at a New York City jazz club, the Hickory House, during 1952–60. The drummer Joe Morello was a member of the group until he departed to join Dave Brubeck's Quartet.
In the 1953–54 season, she appeared as a regular on NBC's Judge for Yourself quiz program emceed by Fred Allen.
In 1958 a black and white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians, including McPartland, was photographed in front of a brownstone in Harlem, New York City. Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the photo, which was called, "A Great Day in Harlem", and it became a well-known image of New York's jazz musicians of the time. Immediately preceding her death in August 2013, she was one of only four of the 57 participating musicians who were still alive. After many years of recording for labels such as Capitol, Savoy, Argo, Sesac, Time, and Dot, in 1969 she founded her own record label, Halcyon Records, before having a long association with the Concord label. Marian and Jimmy divorced in 1972, but they remained close, and remarried in 1991, shortly before Jimmy's death.
In 1964, Marian McPartland launched a new venture on WBAI-FM (New York City), conducting a weekly radio program that featured recordings and interviews with guests. Pacifica Radio's West Coast stations also carried this series, which paved the way for Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, a National Public Radio series that began on 4 June 1978. It was the longest-running cultural program on NPR, as well as one of the longest-running jazz programs ever produced on public radio. The program featured McPartland at the keyboard with guest performers, usually pianists, but also singers, guitarists, other musicians, and even the non-musician Studs Terkel. Several Piano Jazz programs have been released on CD by Concord Records. She celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the NPR series with a live taping at the Kennedy Center for which Peter Cincotti was the guest. After not having recorded a new show since September 2010, on 10 November 2011, NPR announced that McPartland was stepping down as host of Piano Jazz. She then asked her long-time friend, jazz pianist Jon Weber, to carry on with the show. As a result, Piano Jazz: Rising Stars, an NPR series hosted by Weber, began broadcast on 3 January 2012. Piano Jazz soon returned to the air in repeat broadcasts.
Marian was awarded a Grammy in 2004, a Trustees' Lifetime Achievement Award, for her work as an educator, writer, and host of NPR Radio's long-running Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Although a master at adapting to her guest's musical styles and having a well-known affinity for beautiful and harmonically-rich ballads, she also recorded many tunes of her own. Her compositions included "Ambiance," "There'll Be Other Times," "With You In Mind," "Twilight World," and "In the Days of Our Love."
Just before her 90th birthday, she composed and performed a symphonic piece, A Portrait of Rachel Carson, to mark the centennial of the environmental pioneer.
McPartland was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours, "For services to jazz and to aspiring young musicians in the USA".
McPartland's encyclopedic knowledge of jazz standards, highly musical ear, involvement in over 60 years of evolving jazz styles, and rich experience blending with radio guests led to a musical style that was described as "flexible and complex, and almost impossible to pigeonhole." She was known as a harmonically and rhythmically complex and inventive improviser. "She was never content to be in one place, and always kept improving. She has great ears and great harmonics. Because of her ear, she can go into two or three different keys in a tune and shift with no problem."
She was also a synesthete, associating different musical keys with colors, stating that "The key of D is daffodil yellow, B major is maroon, and B flat is blue."
McPartland died on 20 August 2013 of natural causes at her home in Long Island, New York. She was 95 years old.
Stranger In A Dream
Marian McPartland Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Marian McPartland:
A Fine Romance A fine romance, with no kisses A fine romance, my friend…
A Foggy Day I was a stranger in the city Out of town were…
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square That certain night The night we met There was magic abroad i…
All In Love Is Fair All is fair in love Love's a crazy game Two…
All My Life There are places I'll remember All my life, though some have…
Basin Street Blues Won't you come along with me To the Mississippi We'll take a…
body and soul My heart is sad and lonely For you I sigh, for…
Days of Wine and Roses The days of wine and roses, Laugh and run away,…
Dinah Carolina Gave me Dinah; I'm the proudest one Beneath the…
Don't Know Why You don't know what love is 'Til you've learned the meaning…
Embraceable You Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you! Embrace me, you irrep…
Emily Emily, Emily, Emily Has the murmuring sound of may All silve…
From This Moment On From this moment on, You for me dear, Only two for tea…
Gloomy Sunday Sunday is gloomy, my hours are slumberless Dearest, the shad…
Green Dolphin Street It seems like a dream, yet I know it happened A…
Green Dolphon Street It seems like a dream, yet I know it happened A…
How Deep Is The Ocean How much do I love you? I'll tell you no lie How…
How Long Has This Been Going On As a tot, when I trotted in little velvet panties, I…
I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me Yesterday you came my way, And when you smiled at me, In…
I Could Write a Book If they ask me, I could write a book About the…
I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart I let a song go out of my heart It was…
I See Your Face Before Me I see your face before me Crowding my every dream There is…
I'll Be Around I'll never be the same Stars have lost their meaning for…
I'm In The Mood Again Hail to the taxis They go where I go Farewell the newspape…
I've Got A Crush On You How glad the many millions Of Annabelle's and Lilian's Wou…
I've Got the World On A String I've got the world on a string, sittin' on a…
If I Love Again I often wonder why he came to me Brought such a…
If You Could See Me Now If you could see me now, you'd know how blue…
In A Mellow Tone In a mellow tone Feeling fancy free And I'm not alone I've g…
In My Life There are places I'll remember All my life, though some have…
It Don't Mean A Thing It don't mean a thing If it ain't got that swing (doo…
It Might as Well Be Spring I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm I'm as…
It's Only a Paper Moon Say, it's only a paper moon Sailing over a cardboard sea B…
It's You Or No One How did I know that the warmth of the glow…
Jeepers Creepers I don't care what the weatherman says When the weatherman sa…
Josie We're gonna break out the hats and hooters When josie comes…
Just Friends Just friends, lovers no more Just friends, but not like befo…
Just Squeeze Me Want you to know I go for your squeezin' Want you…
Last Night When We Were Young Last night when we were young Love was a star, a…
Laura You know the feeling of something half remembered Of someth…
Little Girl Blue When you were very young The world was younger than you As…
Long Ago And Far Away Long ago and far away I dreamed a dream one day And…
Love Is Here to Stay It's very clear, our love is here to stay Not for…
Love Walked In Falling in love with love is falling for make-believe Fallin…
Love You Madly Love you madly Right or wrong Sounds like a lyric of a…
Lover Come Back to Me You went away I let you We broke the ties that bind I…
Lullaby of Birdland Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I Always hear when you…
Mood Indigo You ain't never been blue; no, no, no, You ain't…
My Foolish Heart The night is like a lovely tune Beware my foolish heart How…
My Funny Valentine My funny valentine, sweet comic valentine You make me smile …
No Greater Love There is no greater love Than what I feel for you No…
Old Folks Everyone knows him as Old Folks Like the seasons, he'll com…
Once In a While Once in a while will you try to give One little…
Only Trust Your Heart Talking by the pool of light, language from America. She put…
Our Love Is Here to Stay It's very clear, our love is here to stay Not for…
Polka Dots And Moonbeams A country dance was being held in a garden I felt…
Prelude To A Kiss If you hear A song in blue Like a flower crying For the…
September Song Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December But…
Skylark Skylark Have you anything to say to me? Won't you tell me…
Sophisticated Lady Sophisticated lady tryin' to change my ways Just because you…
Stella By Starlight The song a robin sings Through years of endless springs The …
Street Of Dreams Midnight, you heavy laden, it's midnight Come on and trade i…
Sweet And Lovely Sweet and lovely sweeter than the roses in May Sweet and…
The Nearness of You Its not the pale moon that excites me That thrills and…
The Touch Of Your Lips When troubles get me, cares beset me And won't let me…
When I Fall In Love Maybe I'm old fashioned, feeling as I do Maybe I am…
When Lights Are Low Listen to the melody entrancing Blending in a soft and sweet…
When you wish upon a Star When a star is born They possess a gift or two One…
With You In Mind Yesterday you came my way, And when you smiled at me, In…
Without You Where were you? I'm sorry I'm late I know, you lost yo…
You Don't Know What Love Is You don't know what love is 'Til you've learned the meaning…
You Took Advantage Of Me When a girl has the heart of a mother It must…
You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To You'd be so nice to come home to You'd be so…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found