Marian McPartland At The London House
Released 1958
Recording and Session Information
Marian McPartland, piano; William Britto, bass; Joe Cusatis, drums
September 24 1958
Easy Blues
Play Fiddle Play
Like Someone In Love
Tune For Tex
Signature Blues
Blues Intro
Steeplechase
Give Me The Simple Life
Sweet And Lovely
So Many Things
Track Listing
| Easy Blues | Mary Lou Williams | September 24 1958 |
| Play Fiddle Play | Deutsch, Altman, Lawrence | September 24 1958 |
| Like Someone In Love | J. Van Heusen | September 24 1958 |
| Tune For Tex | Billy Taylor | September 24 1958 |
| Signature Blues | Marian McPartland | September 24 1958 |
| Blues Intro | Marian McPartland | September 24 1958 |
| Steeplechase | Charlie Parker | September 24 1958 |
| Give Me The Simple Life | Ruby Bloom | September 24 1958 |
| Sweet And Lovely | Arnheim, Tobias, Lemare | September 24 1958 |
| So Many Things | Marian McPartland | September 24 1958 |
Liner Notes
Who is Marian McPartIand?What is the London House?
Have the two anything in common?
These are questions which could easily pop into the mind of anyone contemplating this record. They are relatively simple to answer.
First of all. Marian McPartland is Margaret Marian Turner, Mrs. Jimmy McPartland, and a jazz pianist...not necessarily in that order.
She was Margaret Turner back in England, where she was born and she became Mrs. Jimmy McPartland during World War II after she met the impish American cornetist in a tent in Germany where a jam session was underway. She is a pianist every time she settles onto a piano bench, smoothes her skirts, and taps off the bear with her well-shod foot.
For a time she was Marian Page, but that just makes things unduly complicated.
Although Marian has been in this country since 1946, there is something very reserved, very British (as we here assume the British to be) about her. She is a lady, and conducts herself accordingly. But she is also quick-witted and high-spirited, and surprisingly so to people who do not know her well.
There are many Marian McPartIands. The one I remember with great relish is the handsome young woman swinging away at the grand piano in the Composer, a New York night spot. Attached to her piano, in plain view of everyone in the room, was a water faucet. Before the set ended, the manager or someone else with a sense of outrage, removed the faucet, which was then discovered to be a novelty shop gadget surreptitiously attached to the piano between sets.
Another Marian I love is the one who played the Hickory House, also a New York eat-and-drinkerie. This one rattled off four exchanges with bassist Bill Crow and her drummer Joe Morello while fighting to hold back the laughter bubbling inside her. Almost unnoticed by the audience was the fact that the spotlights, operated by the straight-faced Crow as he played, flicked onto the member of the trio not soloing.
I recall happily the Marian who asked my wife for a request over the composer's PA system one Sunday night when the trio outnumbered the patrons. I facetiously called out "Saints." Marian made a hideous face at me, then stomped off The Royal Garden Blues and it was really much, much more than I deserved. She dug in with her left hand, particularly, in a manner I'd never heard from her before. She can whistle when she gets her back up.
There's the lovely Marian sunning herself on the roof of a mid-Manhattan apartment building, telling me about her life and how she'd like a house in the country where she could putter in the garden. Before that Summer had run its days, she and Jimmy had cottage in somewhat bucolic Merrick, Long Island and Marian was puttering.
And there's the Marian had volunteered to write an article on Duke Ellington for the Boston Globe, "When I saw my own by-line, it thrilled me no end," she laughed. She went on to write more for that journal, and later wrote a fine piece on Mary Lou Williams for Down Beat based on observations and conversations while they shared the bandstand at the Composer during Mary Lou's first job after a long absence from the jazz scene.
These days, the "writing" Marian will contribute articles to hardcover books on jazz, including Sinclair Traill's Just Jazz Volume II. She will also write features for Down Beat on assignment, such as the one she recently did on singer Anita O'Day.
I am very fond of the Marian who writes moody minor ballads such as With You In Mind, and the one in this collection, So Many Things.
There's a restless Marian, too. One who would like to play with a big band because "It's part of my musical education that I missed, I feel like someone who's gone to the third grade, then skipped ahead. I sat in once with Duke, and it was the greatest."
So many Marians...the laughing, tomboyish Marian venturing into Manhattan's traffic on Bill Crow's motor-scooter; a quiet Marian who likes to draw and paint; the Marian who plays behind Jimmy's Dixie cornet, them belts off her own modern jazz...
All in all, a warm and witty girl. And a pianist well worth hearing.
Now, about the London House....
It's a plush, well-lighted place, where steaks and jazz are dispensed in about equal proportions through the course of any evening. As I recall it, the bandstand is about halfway down the rather oblong room, and situated so the musicians are in view of everyone.
Musicians like the room because they feel close to the patrons. Marian says, "Piano and lighting are excellent, and you are made to feel very much at home there. Opening night is quite a gala affair, with Wed Howard or another Chicago DJ being on hand to introduce your first set and welcome you back to the club. This sets the mood for a real pleasant engagement, and it has always been this way.
"Another thing (and note how Marian, once warmed up gets rolling), nobody ever bothers you about what to play or when. This is undoubtedly one of my all-time places to play. The owners, George and Oscar Merienchal are wonderful people to work for, and the whole staff is helpful and kind."
Question three, posed long ago and far back, has by now answered itself. What the London House and Marian have in common is jazz. A representative portion was captured on this in-person set, cut during actual performances at London House Sept. 24, 1958. With Marian were bassist Bill Britto and drummer Joe Cusatis. Also on hand were a substantial number of patrons. You'll hear their crockery clinking, as well as their applause for Marian's sets.
The program is a typical McPartland set, opening with Mary Lou Williams' Easy Blues. "A lot of people ask me about her," Marian notes, "I guess because we together, and I wrote that article about her. To me she is one of the finest musicians I have ever known."
Play Fiddle Play and Like Someone In Love>/i> are pulsing treatments of standards. Billy Taylor's Tune For Tex is a sort of salute to that pianist, opposite whom Marian has often worked and admires.
A bit of the blues opens the second side, giving way to Charlie Parker's Steeplechase, Give Me The Simple Life and Sweet And Lovely, are examples of standards as done by Marian. Her own "So Many Things" came to her last Summer, and as she says, "It's one of several I wrote recently. I seem to have a feeling for composing moody, minor ballads."
That's about all there is...except for the actual playing of the record. No amount of background can describe the music on this LP; that you'll have to hear for yourself.
But at least you've met Marian, and she's well worth knowing. She's one of a tiny group of women who have made it as jazz artists.
And you don't hardly ever get this kind anymore these days.
DOM CERULLI
Associate Editor
Down Beat Magazine
