Marian McPartland: A Fine Romance

Track

A Fine Romance

Artist

Marian McPartland (piano)

CD

Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 9 (Concord Jazz CCD-4460)

Buy Track

Musicians:

Marian McPartland (piano),

Composed by Jerome Kern & Dorothy Fields

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Recorded: Maybeck Recital Hall, Berkeley, CA, January 20, 1991

Albumcovermarianmcpartland-liveatmaybeckrecitalhall-volume9

Rating: 95/100 (learn more)

So, is Marian McPartland, best known for hosting NPR's long-running Piano Jazz, a radio personality who plays jazz well, or a pianist whose personality plays well on radio? Listen to this track, and you'll think of her first and foremost as a musician. While the occasional walking bass might imply a traditionalist, her modernist harmonies and boppish right hand dispel the allusion in Dorothy Fields's unsung lyric to "old fogies" who "need crutches." Two months shy of her 73rd birthday, Marian McPartland was spry as a kitten, and just as playful, suggesting NPR stood for Never-ending Piano Radiance.

Reviewer: Alan Kurtz

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