Jazz legend Marian McPartland dies at age 95
Marian McPartland, a world-renowned jazz pianist and host of an internationally syndicated National Public Radio show for more than 40 years, has died at age 95.
Much acclaimed, the English-born McPartland died Tuesday in New York of natural causes.
McPartland came to the United States in 1946 at a time when women were virtually unknown in the world of jazz, and even her friends and parents gave her little chance of succeeding in the male-dominated music scene.
But her keyboard exploits won her admirers. McPartland once wrote that she cherished a compliment when a man at a bar told her, "You know, you can\’t be a respectable woman the way you play the piano."
Over a career that spanned six decades, McPartland recorded more than 50 albums, exhibiting a talent for harmonically lush improvisations, a mix of her classical training and interest in modern jazz.
She hosted "Marian McPartland\’s Piano Jazz" on National Public Radio in the U.S. for three decades until 2011, a show that aired on more than 200 stations around the world. She talked about music with such vocalists as Mel Torme, Tony Bennett and Willie Nelson and played duets with numerous guests.
Source: Agencies
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