Now, A Jazz Moment...

Music: "It Never Entered My Mind," CD: Windows, Concord CCD2-2233-2, (disc 1, cut2)

NEA Jazz Master Marian McPartland

Marian McPartland: It's something I'm so glad I did although when I started, my parents, they were embarrassed.

They thought their "proper" british daughter shouldn't play jazz piano.

I think now they must have really suffered, letting me do this and my mother said, oh, you'll come to no good, you'll marry a musician and live in an attic! I tell the kids at school that's exactly what happened...quick laf...

In 1943, McPartland met cornetist Jimmy McPartland at a USO camp in Belgium. She was the pianist and he was in charge of the band that played for all the officers coming in on vacation. They came to have a good time and generally misbehave.

And so that was the atmosphere into which Jimmy and I...it just seemed inevitable, because he was a dashing, good looking guy, and I started learning all kinds of tunes like Embraceable You and things that you think that everybody should know, but I didn't know until that time. We just fell in love, you might say, and decided to get married.

MUSIC: "Embraceable You," CD: Timeless Marian McPartland, Savoy SVY-17117, (cut 9)

This Jazz Moment with pianist Marian McPartland was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.