EUGENE–Jazz piano legend Marian McPartland, the "Grande Dame of Jazz," will perform with University of Oregon jazz pianist Gary Versace and the Oregon Jazz Ensemble to conclude the 11th annual Oregon Jazz Celebration on Saturday, Jan. 16.

The public concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of South Eugene High School,
400 E. 19th Ave.

General admission tickets, available at the door, are $15 each. Tickets to the concert also will be available in advance through the South Eugene High ticket office by calling 334-4882 weekdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Under the direction of Associate Professor Steve Owen, the Oregon Jazz Celebration will consist of a full day of concerts, clinics and workshops designed to heighten understanding of jazz and jazz performance practices. Twenty-five high school bands from around the Northwest will attend the annual event at the UO School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave.

All-day Celebration Passes will be available at the music school on Jan. 16 for $15. The pass will entitle the bearer to attend all performances, clinics and the evening concert.

For more information, call the music school weekdays at (541) 346-5678. To confirm Oregon Jazz Celebration information, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 2533, for a taped message of the day’s events.

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To many fans, Marian McPartland is best known as the eloquent hostess of the long-running National Public Radio program, "Piano Jazz." Since 1979, McPartland has interviewed and performed with more than 400 guest artists from the world of jazz and beyond. The hour-long NPR program, which is syndicated nationally, is immensely popular and has been instrumental in helping her reach the attention of a large and grateful audience.

Although significant, "Piano Jazz" is just one of many facets of McPartland’s remarkably active career.

Almost continuously on the road performing solo, in combos or with an orchestra, McPartland always finds time to help inspire and motivate young people to listen to and play jazz. Whether conducting seminars, workshops or command performances at schools and universities throughout the country, she pursues a never-ending crusade to give something back to the art and community that has given so much to her.

The tireless energy and boundless enthusiasm that infuses all of McPartland’s endeavors is easily traced back to one simple pleasure: she loves to play. It is something that has been a part of her since childhood.

Born in England, Margaret Marian Turner began her music career at age three by attempting to emulate her mother, who loved to play Chopin waltzes on the piano. By her teens, McPartland was practicing eight hours a day and was enrolled at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music.

Inspired by the popular standards and jazz music she was hearing from across the Atlantic via the BBC, McPartland dropped out of the Guildhall and took her first professional job–a road tour with three other pianists playing jazzy-sounding pop music in vaudeville theaters around the country.

In the 1940s McPartland joined the ENSA–the British equivalent to the USO–traveling throughout Europe and entertaining the troops. It was during this time that she met the charismatic Chicago cornetist, Jimmy McPartland. The two were married in Germany in 1945 and returned to Jimmy’s hometown after the war.

For a while McPartland played in Jimmy’s quintet. But when her musical attention was caught and swayed by the bebop revolution, Jimmy–who was always her biggest fan–encouraged her to form her own trio.

After moving to New York, Jimmy helped her land a two-week engagement at the famed Hickory House on 52nd Street. The two weeks stretched into a marvelous decade and helped establish McPartland’s reputation as a major talent in the jazz community.

It was during this time that McPartland worked with perhaps her most famous trio, bassist Bill Crow and drummer Joe Morello. It also marked the beginning of a steady output of recorded work, including records for Savoy and, later, Capital.

Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, McPartland toured and recorded extensively. In 1970 she formed her own record label, called Halcyon, and made many recordings of herself and other musicians she admired (among them Dave McKenna). Several of those records as well many of her classic "Piano Jazz" programs are available on The Jazz Alliance, the sister label of Concord Jazz.

McPartland’s association with Concord is now going on two decades. Included among her many highlights for the label are a solo concert at Maybeck Recital Hall, a duet with longtime friend George Shearing, and a 1994 tribute to her idol, Mary Lou Williams.

Soon McPartland will return to the studio to document yet another side of her prolific talent, as McPartland and her trio plan to perform some of her own compositions accompanied by a string orchestra. The project, which will feature arrangements by Grammy Award-winning composer Alan Broadbent, has been a long-time dream of McPartland’s.

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Gary Versace is an assistant professor of jazz piano and the assistant director of jazz studies at the University of Oregon, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1993.

Versace received his Master of Music degree in jazz studies from the Eastman School of Music after receiving bachelor’s degrees in both piano performance and music education from the University of Connecticut.

As a jazz pianist, he has won several awards, including Best Soloist at the 1991 Villanova Jazz Festival and a Downbeat Award in the small ensemble category.

Versace has recorded with the Mike Titlebaum Quintet for KB Productions, and as an arranger he has written for such prominent jazz artists as Claudio Roditi. His transcriptions for Marian McPartland and others have been published by Warner Brothers Publications, by the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors and by Downbeat Magazine.

Since moving to the Northwest, Versace has become much in demand as a featured soloist, clinician and adjudicator at various festivals around the United States, including the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and the Reno International Jazz Festival at the University of Nevada.

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