EC Piano Jazz

[scielle]

Marian McPartland: Piano Jazz with Elvis Costello
by Timothy Jarrett
Music from Jazz Alliance
Release date: 12 July, 2005


This recording of Elvis Costello on Marian McPartland’s long running jazz interview show will surprise only those of his fans who haven’t been paying attention. For the last 20 years, Elvis has made a career of confounding expectations and sneaking popular music and standards into the unlikeliest of places. This latest recording, featuring EC singing a mix of standards, ballads, and a few of his own tunes and discussing his career with the indefatigable McPartland, is the purest fruit of his long labor in the vineyards of the American songbook.

If you’re unfamiliar with the format of McPartland’s show, which is typically interview material alternated with a joint performance between host and guest, the chatty bits between the songs may throw you. For those who prefer not to hear the chatter, the songs are thoughtfully on separate tracks. It would be a mistake to skip the interview, though, as Elvis discusses his early influences (his dad the jazz musician, his mom’s record collection, British R&B singers), his approach to performing, his early 80s collaborations with Chet Baker, and other bits of interesting ephemera.

How about the songs? The performances are clean: I don’t think Elvis has ever turned in a purer rendition of “My Funny Valentine” than on this disc, his Little Jimmy Scott-esque vibrato on the final phrase notwithstanding. “At Last,” which Elvis dedicates to his dad who performed it many years ago, is understated and touching, as is “The Very Thought of You.” He takes a turn to the darkness with “Gloomy Sunday” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” (and notes in an aside to McPartland, “I can make ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ sound dark—I’ve had this face for 48 years now, there’s nothing I can do about it!”).

Of the EC originals on this disc, the closer (“I’m in the Mood Again,” from his underrated North) is the better performance. With Elvis playing “composer’s piano,” the melody is effortlessly spun into a gentle reverie that, to my ears, betters the album performance. Alas, no such luck with “Almost Blue.” McPartland hangs back a little too far and the flow of the piece is lost; I also miss the coda of the piece.

To my ears, the highlight of this disc is “They Didn’t Believe Me,” a forgotten Jerome Kern jewel from 1914 that sings in this version. It narrowly bests Elvis’s other recording of the song with the Brodsky Quartet, available only on a promotional sampler from the Juliet Letters tour.

Based on the chronology of this session (Elvis mentions he’s in the process of recording North, this recording was made around the time that his relationship with Diana Krall began. The performances show it. This is a man in love, and the performances of these ballads benefit from it: gentle, sensitive, and optimistic in a way that is unusual in EC’s massive catalog. Highly recommended.

[Eric in Long Beach]

This sounds like a fun disc.

[scielle]

McPartland-Costello jazz program encores on CD

By OTIS R. TAYLOR Jr.
Staff Writer

There is no good music or bad music. It’s all just music to Marian McPartland.

“Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” — produced for its entire 26-year run by South Carolina’s ETV Radio — has allowed the 86-year-old jazz legend to share the radio stage with such greats as Shirley Horn, Burt Bacharach and Bobby Short. Two years ago, McPartland sat down to play with rock legend Elvis Costello. The resulting duets, which aired Sept.30, 2003, will be released on CD on Tuesday.

“I like what he’s doing now,” McPartland said of Costello. “He’s getting into a more straightforward way of singing.”

McPartland played the piano and Costello, who helped ignite the ’70s punk/new wave explosion, sang jazz standards.

Elvis and jazz? It’s not as far off as you might think. After all, he’s married to jazz sensation Diana Krall, and he has dabbled before in other genres, such as country and easy listening. But it doesn’t end there.

The Englishman’s mother was a jazz and classical records saleswoman and his father, influenced by imported jazz records from America, was a professional trumpet player and singer.

McPartland knew the elder Costello.

“It’s interesting to me that his father was a singer in an English band that I knew very well,” McPartland said. “He sang a song his father sang.”

That song, “At Last,” sits alongside Costello-written songs and standards on “Elvis Costello-Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz Radio Broadcast.” The CD will be available at most record stores and at www.concordrecords.com.

McPartland said Costello was pleasant to be around.

“It was a lot of fun for me,” she said. “I don’t get to accompany anyone that often.”

“Piano Jazz,” which airs locally at 8 p.m. Saturday on WLTR-FM 91.3 and WRJA-FM 88.1, usually has McPartland trading sounds with other jazz musicians.

Meshing genres is something McPartland does to stay fresh. Her collaboration with Costello is similar to what she did with classic rockers Steely Dan.

Shari Hutchinson, who has produced “Piano Jazz” for 20 years, said she talked to McPartland almost every day.

When searching for guests, Hutchinson said, she and McPartland talked about Costello because of his jazz background.

“She was intrigued by his playing,” Hutchinson said. “She heard the jazz influences. He’s well versed and well grounded in jazz.”

McPartland hopes to release more CDs, including one with Krall. When asked why she continues working, McPartland said she was having fun so there was no need to stop.

She told Hutchinson exactly when she would be done with music.

“She said she’s going to bop until she drops,” Hutchinson said.