RIP: Marian McPartland / Piano Jazz

[ERD50]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/a...io-staple-dies-at-95.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

And she continued playing almost to the end. Reviewing her appearance at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Manhattan the night before her 90th birthday in 2008, Nate Chinen wrote in The Times, “Ms. McPartland still has her pellucid touch and her careful yet comfortable style.”

Unlike some jazz musicians of her generation, Ms. McPartland never became set in her ways; her playing grew denser and more complex with time, and even late in life she was experimenting with new harmonic ideas. “I’ve become a bit more — reckless, maybe,” she said in 1998. “I’m getting to the point where I can smash down a chord and not know what it’s going to be, and make it work.”

I listened to the show from time to time and was always impressed. Saw here perform locally ~ 10 years ago, and she was great. I know I got her autograph, will need to dig that out for old time's sake.

I've got some of her later albums, and it is amazing just how 'far out' and wild she will get. Just not what I picture from someone her age - but it ws very cool.

-ERD50