Marian McPartland gets Cinema Arts fete

Jazz great Marian McPartland still gets keyed up when she's sitting at the piano. At 95, she doesn't get to play the Steinway grand in a living room corner of her Port Washington home as much as she used to, but when she's asked to play a few notes, as she is on this spring day, McPartland gets the same thrill she did when she performed with jazz royalty from the Duke (Ellington) to the Count (Basie).

And clearly, the song is far from over for McPartland. In the past year and a half, McPartland has been front and center, thanks to the publication last fall of her authorized biography, "Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland" by Paul de Barros (St. Martin's Press) and the release of the 2011 documentary entitled "In Good Time: The Piano Jazz of Marian McPartland." The melody will linger longer when the film is screened at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington next Saturday. McPartland will be there for the entire afternoon's festivities: a short reading by de Barros, followed by the documentary and then a Q&A with McPartland, de Barros and Huey, the movie's director. Topping off the festivities will be a reception in the Sky Room Cafe, where fans can talk to McPartland while her friend and protégé Roberta Piket performs some of McPartland's compositions.

NOT LIKE THE OLD DAYS

All that attention seems a far cry from McPartland's early days trying to make a name for herself in the world of jazz, when it was still pretty much a boys' club. "She is English, white, and a woman . . . three hopeless strikes against her," wrote British music critic Leonard Feather about McPartland in 1951.

Those early struggles, as well as her triumphs, including 33 years as host of the NPR show "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz," are covered in the film, which follows McPartland's musical journey from Slough in Buckinghamshire, England, where she was born in 1918, to her days in Port Washington. It took four years to make the movie, during which time Huey did extensive interviews with McPartland.

"After a couple of years, Marian asked, 'Huey, when's this film going to get done?,' which shows her graciousness and patience with me," says the director.

And apparently all of that effort paid off. After a private screening for McPartland, family members, friends and Grammy winners Diana Krall and Elvis Costello at Port Washington Public Library in 2011, Huey was relieved when McPartland gave the film a thumbs-up. "And I was surprised at what a ham I was," she jokes.

LEARNING FROM HER HUSBAND

McPartland can credit her "hammy" nature to her late husband, famed Chicago jazz cornetist Jimmy McPartland, then a G.I., when she met him while touring with a USO show in France during World War II. The two clicked immediately. After the war ended, they married in Germany on Feb. 4, 1946, and played at their military base wedding. They then came to the United States and began performing together.

"He taught me how to be more show businesslike," she says. "He told me playing the piano wasn't everything. I had to speak out and talk to the audience as well. I was laid-back and shy. He was very funny and had a great sense of humor."

Beside helping her connect more with the audience, he taught her how to talk a very "blue" streak, which de Barros says was one of the most surprising things he discovered when working on his book. "She has this British accent and seems like such a well-mannered English lady. She hung out with Jimmy McPartland and these Prohibition-era musicians and can swear better than a sailor," he says with some affection. "And like a lot of people in show business, she's sort of always 'on.' "

Despite their affection for each other, life for the McPartlands had its share of sour notes. "I wouldn't say altogether it was a good marriage. It had its ups and downs," says Marian. The downs included Jimmy's heavy drinking and Marian's long affair with drummer Joe Morello, which at first, Marian was reluctant to reveal to de Barros for his book. The biography delves more heavily into her personal life than the documentary.

"I said to her, 'I'm going to write a book that's not going to make you happy in every sense,' " de Barros recalls. "I'm going to write a fair book. If people say things that are not nice about you, I'm going to put it in the book. She got to see everything first and could argue with me and present her case for not including something." McPartland gave de Barros full access to her personal archives.

The book also covers McPartland's trailblazing career as one of the first female jazz musicians, along with pianist Mary Lou Williams, working steadily in the 1950s and '60s. Her career really took off when she formed her own modern jazz trio, which had an eight-year residency at the Hickory House, a popular Manhattan jazz spot on West 52nd Street, from 1952 to 1960. Ultimately, her career eclipsed her husband's, which further put a strain on their marriage. They divorced in 1974, though they continued to perform together and remained friends. Two weeks before Jimmy's death in 1991, they remarried.

Suggest to McPartland that she was a pioneer who helped pave the way for artists who are now established, such as Krall, Norah Jones and other women working in jazz today, she responds modestly: "I think Mary Lou Williams was more of a pioneer woman piano player."

Piket, whose set list for Saturday's post-film reception will include "Threnody," McPartland's tribute to Williams, praises her mentor for helping women flourish in the world of jazz. "Just seeing that iconic photo 'A Great Day in Harlem' where Marian and Mary Lou Williams are the only two female musicians there. Seeing that made me believe that I could have a career as a female jazz musician," Piket says.

'PIANO JAZZ' FAME

For most fans, McPartland is best known hosting "Piano Jazz," where her standard question to everyone from Dave Brubeck to Piket was, "Shall we play that one together?" And a duet would follow. "She's a lifelong self-improver, who's always trying to make her piano playing better," says de Barros. "With the show, she just got free piano lessons from 800 of the greatest piano players, like Eubie Blake showing her what he does with his left hand."

McPartland still regrets that she never invited Ellington to be on her program, especially since playing with him was a career highlight. "I didn't know I was going to do it," she says. "I was in the audience and he just said, 'Come on up here and play.' Duke and I were friends for so many years. So to sit and play with Duke's band was something enormous."

While the show enhanced McPartland's popularity, de Barros thinks it may have made people forget what an innovative musician she is. "She became so famous as a radio personality that people downplayed the quality of her playing," he says. "And she's a very individualistic and creative and imaginative player."

These days, McPartland stays pretty close to home in Port Washington, where she still enjoys her garden, her afternoon tea and occasional visits to favorite local spots like The Dolphin Bookshop.

And she's looking forward to the McPartland fest in Huntington on Saturday.

"I didn't know he [Huey] was going to make such a good documentary out of it. It showed so many different parts of my life," she says. "Plus the book. It's a very interesting, well-written book. I guess I've still got a lot of stuff going for me."

CELEBRATING MCPARTLAND

WHAT The documentary "In Good Time: The Piano Jazz of Marian McPartland," plus Q&A with McPartland, her biographer Paul de Barros and the film's director Huey, followed by a reception with all three, plus musical selections by pianist Roberta Piket.

WHEN|WHERE 1 p.m. next Saturday, Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington

INFO $15; 800-838-3006, cinemaartscentre.org