MARIAN McPARTLAND HAS A GIGGLE OVER HER RADIO GIG

“Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” is unquestionably the most honored radio series in the history of jazz, and most probably the best.

Since she launched it almost six years ago, the protean pianist/composer/educator/journalist/broadcaster has provided airspace for a vast cross-section of jazz and pop artists. On each show her guest is interviewed, plays a few solos, and winds up in a two-keyboard duet with her.

At once lively, entertaining and informative, the series has won the George Foster Peabody Award, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award and many other trophies. “This is more fun than anything else I’ve ever done,” said the effusive English-born host, who is in town for a recital tonight at the Ambassador in Pasadena. The fun is a main reason for the program’s unique success: along with the high level of musicianship one hears a constant sense of mutual pleasure shared by McPartland and her guests.

Produced by the South Carolina Educational Radio Network for National Public Radio, “Piano Jazz” was suggested to her by the late Alec Wilder; the composer had just completed his own Peabody winning series, “American Popular Song.”

“We just started with the first 13 shows, funded by Exxon, and I figured that would be it,” said McPartland. “Then they decided to fund us again, and it got to the point where they’d call up and say, ‘Do you want to do some more piano shows? We’re ready to fund them.’ So, it seems to be going on indefinitely.”

For the initial program, in April, 1979, her guest was the late Mary Lou Williams, then on the faculty at Duke University. “That was a big mistake; I was a nervous wreck, never having done this sort of thing before, and she was in one of her militant moods--but by the end of the show she was really nice, and I’m happy I got her. We’ve lost her, and too many other I interviewed later: Bill Evans, Johnny Guarnieri, Albert Dailey, Hazel Scott, Eubie Blake. Eubie was my oldest guest: he was on at age 97, three years before he died. It’s awful that I missed Count Basie and Earl Hines--they both wanted to do the show, but we never could get together.”

Most of the guests have been eager to talk freely about their lives and pianistic modus operandi. “Even Teddy Wilson, who is often laconic in interviews, was rather verbose and talked about all sorts of things. For the most part everyone talks up a storm. I’d say the most lucid and articulate of all was Bill Evans, and fortunately something special is coming out of that.

“Helen Keane, who was Bill’s manager, is putting together an album using some of that show as one side of the record. I think that’s sensational, because Bill really did an educational program, showing how he puts together a tune from the ground up.”

Though the concept of converting some of these programs into albums seems logical, McPartland has qualms. “There’d be problems dealing with clearances, extra payments for the artists, and so on; but George Shearing has said he’d be willing to have some of his shows released in album form, and maybe there are others like him.

“Shearing, by the way, is a bloody genius. He and I are always competing, trying to trick one another. On the show we took his ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ and I asked him, ‘How would you do it if Debussy were playing it?’ and he did that. I kept nagging him, saying things like ‘Do Wagner,’ and he didn’t do what I expected; instead, he came up with some beautiful music from ‘The Ring’ and incorporated ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ into it. It was just fantastic! For sheer musicianship it was one of the best shows ever--but I can’t forget Dick Hyman and Oscar Peterson, who both knocked me out.

McPartland’s qualifications are her own consummate keyboard artistry, her encyclopedic knowledge of piano history, and her ability to switch styles so that she can duet with all comers. She even has a promise of an appearance by the prolix Cecil Taylor, the furthest avant of the entire garde. “I’ve asked Cecil if he’ll try to do short tunes; that’s the only thing I’m concerned about.”

Some of the most intriguing programs have involved artists not primarily knows as pianists: Carmen McRae, who began her career as intermission pianist at Minton’s in Harlem; Dudley Moore (“He was a laugh from start to finish”), George Wein, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Henry Mancini and Mel Torme, who was taped during McPartland’s visit to Los Angeles last month. At that time programs were also completed with Nellie Lutcher, Lou Levy and Pete Jolly.

McPartland takes special pride in having rediscovered a couple of performers long in obscurity. She brought Phineas Newborn Jr., one of the giants of the 1960s, from Memphis to New York for a session. “He’s a little strange, untalkative, but still plays wonderfully.” Her most improbable find was Cleo Brown, the singer and pianist born in 1909, who in 1972, in a book called “Who’s Who of Jazz,” was listed as “deceased.”

“I heard Cleo was living in Denver, and it took months to track her down. She’s got religion and won’t do anything the least bit suggestive such as ‘The Stuff Is Here,’ which she recorded in 1935. But she did do some boogie-woogie, and we had a great time; every other sentence was ‘God bless you’ or ‘Praise the Lord.’ I sent a copy of the tape to John Chilton, who wrote the book listing her as dead. I attached a note saying ‘Surprise!’

Cleo Brown was one of the senior citizens taped by McPartland for posterity; others were Art Hodes, 81 (“Amazing, very interesting--he has a style of blues that’s all his own”), and Jess Stacy, 82, the one-time Benny Goodman sideman, lured momentarily out of his long retirement. The youngest guest to date has been Makoto Ozone, who appeared on the series a year ago at 24.

Dave Frishberg, Blossom Dearie, Shirley Horn and others have doubled as vocalists. Max Morath, the historian who specializes in turn-of-the-century music, presented a challenge. “I was dreading that; I thought, my God, I can’t play in that bag at all. But Max sang and played a poignant old Bert Williams tune, ‘Nobody,’ and some pieces out of a ‘Ragtime Ladies’ album about people in the early 1900s who played piano in their drawing rooms; then we duetted on ‘Bill Bailey’ and ‘I Found a New Baby.’ It was really fun.”

“Really fun” symbolizes her infectious attitude toward the show in general; she can almost be counted on to use these words at one point or another in every show.

At last count, the series was on 164 stations around the United States. (In Los Angeles it has been on KCRW but was dropped temporarily pending the arrival of new material. KPPC in Pasadena, 89.3 FM, runs it Sunday evenings from 11 to midnight.)

“There are so many people I’d still like to do,” said McPartland. “I expect to have Jack Lemmon, and I’d love to do Stephane Grappelli--he plays good enough piano, and he’s so cute and wonderful--I’ve known him forever.”

McPartland’s in-person career continues as it has for many years. “I seem to be averaging two concerts a week, including occasional symphony dates. I’ll be back in London this summer for an appearance with the London Symphony, where my old friend John Dankworth, the composer, has a whole series going for them. I’m hoping George Wein will bring me back to the Nice Festival, where Jimmy and I worked last year.” (Jimmy McPartland, her trumpeter ex-husband, still a close friend, continues to play occasional gigs with her.)

Meanwhile the awards keep coming. Not long ago her entire series was donated to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the New York Public Library. “It seemed like a great occasion for a get-together, so we had a party and 40 of the pianists showed up. The late Dick Phipps, my wonderful producer--he died a few weeks ago--had a great idea: He had small bronze replicas of the Peabody Award made for each pianist. Shearing and I played, there were a lot of speeches and piano duets, and it was just a wonderful night.”

Yet another honor came her way last month when she became the first woman to be named “Jazz Educator of the Year” by the National Assn. of Jazz Educators.

“Gene Shalit presented it to me on the ‘Today’ show. It was thrilling, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sad. After all, Mary Lou Williams certainly would have received it before I did.”