Jimmy McPartland; Trumpet Player, Chicago Jazz Influence

Jimmy McPartland, a trumpeter and cornetist in the legendary tradition of Bix Beiderbecke and a major influence on the frenetic school of Chicago jazz, died of cancer Wednesday.

His wife, pianist and composer Marian McPartland, said he was 83 and died at their Long Island, N.Y., home.

She and McPartland had divorced in 1970 after 25 years of marriage but were remarried just two weeks ago when his death became imminent.

She added that he will be cremated and buried near his mother in Chicago. It was there that he first became known as a musician.

James Dugald McPartland was the son of a music teacher who started him on violin at age 5 and on cornet at 15. His first combo was composed of his brother, two schoolmates and other young instrumentalists known as the Austin High School Gang.

They recorded for the Okeh label and were credited with defining the nervously energetic style that was to become known as Chicago jazz.

At age 17 he joined the Wolverines, a famous jazz band of the 1920s that featured Beiderbecke on cornet. It was McPartland who eventually replaced that troubled horn genius when Beiderbecke sought other avenues for his soaring solos.

He joined the Ben Pollack orchestra--whose graduates included Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden and many others who would go on to lead their own organizations--and in the early 1930s, McPartland recorded with Goodman, worked in Broadway pit bands and with Russ Columbo and Horace Heidt.

In 1936 he formed his own jazz group, abandoned it in 1941, and then played briefly with Teagarden before joining the Army.

After participating in the invasion of Normandy he joined a USO unit where he met the British pianist Marian Turner. They married in 1945 and as Marian McPartland she went on to a major career as a broadcaster, performer and jazz essayist.

After the war Jimmy McPartland continued to perform with his own groups around New York City, appeared in a TV fantasy about jazz musicians called “The Magic Horn” and even worked as a stage actor.

His style--which Times jazz critic Leonard Feather said McPartland preferred not to hear described as Dixieland--can be heard on several Brunswick, MGM, Victor and Decca albums, while his work with the Wolverines can still be found on the “History of Classic Jazz” series on Riverside.

In an interview for his 75th birthday, McPartland told the Associated Press, “A pro is a pro. To me, unless you’re in the hospital, you’ve got to show up and do the best you can. You try to give it your best shot every time you get on that bandstand, or you don’t belong doing it at all.

“I want to try to keep in shape and keep going as long as possible. I want to blow that horn as long as I possibly can play it.”