♪ >> Andrew Gobeil: Today on "The Big Picture"... ♪ >> Gobeil: An institution in the jazz world visits South Carolina.

And we were there.

Marian McPartland on "The Big Picture."

>> Gobeil: Welcome to "The Big Picture."

I'm Andrew Gobeil.

An oasis of intelligence and grace... no, that's not a description of "The Big Picture," although we do try.

It's what the "Washington Post" called "Piano Jazz," a national weekly, hour-long jazz program produced by ETV Radio.

And that intelligence and grace comes as a result of the program's host, a musical institution, Marian McPartland, whom Beryl Dakers has met and interviewed and worked with a number of times, including on her recent visit to the university here.

>> Dakers: Absolutely, Andy.

This was one of the most exciting opportunities, though, because Marian came not to do "Piano Jazz" but to actually premiere a new composition that she had written especially for orchestra.

>> Gobeil: And we'll get to that composition in just a second, but first, some very, very lucky students had an opportunity to meet with her.

>> Dakers: The certainly did.

She did a master class for some of the music students at USC, and, typically, like Marion, she turned it into a quasi-"Piano Jazz" session.

Let's take a look.

>> When you mention her name, people who have a bent toward jazz, especially, the name--I mean, this is the great giant, so to speak.

And I, myself, get a chance to listen to "Piano Jazz."

And to think of all the great jazz musicians that she'd played with, it's just, it's mind-boggling.

>> Dakers: For nearly 30 years, Marian McPartland has been the legendary host of National Public Radio's "Piano Jazz."

Produced by South Carolina ETV Radio, this laid-back mix of conversation and jazz piano couplings is the longest-running cultural program on NPR, and it's octogenarian host a household name.

McPartland recently visited the University of South Carolina to premiere a new symphonic composition, but while there, she took time out for a master class at the School of Music.

>> I was a little ambivalent about getting up there at first.

Then I saw what was up there: Ms. McPartland, who has played for years.

So, I mean, her experience alone would have stopped me.

I can say I played with Marion McPartland.

That's enough for me.

♪ >> Female speaker: She's just-- she knows everybody.

How many other people have sat in this seat, you know, next to Marion McPartland on the piano, and all my idols who she knows, and she is an idol to me and to jazz musicians and jazz listeners, you know, worldwide.

So...an experience, you know.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] >> McPartland: I thought that was terrific, two people who have never met, and-- [applause and cheers] >> McPartland: Well, that's what piano jazz is like.

Give her another big-- [applause] >> Dakers: "Piano Jazz" serves a different role for different people.

It's the longest-running cultural program on NPR.

What do you think has been its greatest role or contribution, from your standpoint?

>> McPartland: I think... hearing people talk very casually, like people always tell me I sound like I'm in my own living room talking to the guests.

So many people say that, and maybe it does sound like that.

I mean, it's a very flexible, easy-going show, and I, of course, want to make the other person, if they're the least bit nervous, make them at east.

But they always seem to be very at ease, ready to take me on... [laughing] which is fine.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Hi, my name is Matthew.

Whenever you're playing a piano duet, do you think more in terms of each individual piano or do you think in terms of a composite melody?

>> McPartland: I think all I do, really, is try not to get in the way of the other person, and listen to what they're doing, and try to play the same harmony.

Sometimes it doesn't always work.

♪ [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Dakers: What was it like for you having those youngsters come up and play with you and... >> McPartland: Oh, it was wonderful.

It made the whole thing for me because sitting there talking, I was a nervous wreck.

My idea was definitely to get somebody up to play, overcome their reticence.

And they got up there.

I think we had about a little seven-piece band.

We had a bass player.

If we'd had a drummer, we would have been in good shape.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> McPartland: Thanks to all the people who played, and I really had a ball.

I hope you'll show up at the concert on Thursday and give me some moral support.

I'll certainly need it.

Thanks so much for coming.

See you later.

[applause] >> Gobeil: And as is usual for Marian McPartland, rather than teaching, she's trying to get everybody engaged and gets all the students to come up and participate.

Pretty entertaining.

She just seems like a genuine person when you sit down and have a chance to talk to her.

>> Dakers: It's wonderful.

She actually has such a sense of humor.

And it's sort of a wry wit, and so you kind of wait for the punch line.

>> Gobeil: To be able to pick up on it.

I would imagine the students were thrilled.

>> Dakers: They were.

I think so.

But I think Marian was thrilled about her purpose for being here, and that, of course, to premiere her new piece, "A Portrait of Rachel Carson."

>> Gobeil: Rachel Carson, of course, the environmentalist back in the 1970s, and the work that Marian did to honor her.

And actually, there were family members of Rachel Carson here.

>> Dakers: Rachel's nephew by birth, but actually, her adopted son, Roger Christie, was here for the premiere.

This year, by the way, was the centennial of Carson's birth, so it was very fitting for Marian to do the piece.

But this is her homage to Carson, in a sense, but it was also her way of making a statement about the environment because, as it turns out, she is a very, very strong environmentalist herself.

>> Gobeil: So she had an opportunity to come down and sit and perform in front of a packed house, I would imagine.

How is she behind the scenes preparing for a performance like this?

>> Dakers: Well, she doesn't rehearse very much.

When she came to the university, she met with the students on a Monday.

It was the first time they had performed the piece together.

They had one other rehearsal the day before, and then she sits down and plays.

Interestingly, her role is totally improvisational.

The students' parts were all written out, but what Marian played was improv.

And the piano is not central, even though that's her instrument.

>> Gobeil: And I love the story--she's brilliant.

She started playing Chopin when she was three.

But she says that she doesn't read music.

>> Dakers: No, she doesn't read music very well.

So it's, it's quite a feat that she's able to do this.

And she actually knows thousands of pieces, thousands.

>> Gobeil: Brilliant.

Well, let's listen in right now as she performed her piece here in Columbia.

>> Dakers: For Marian McPartland, despite her many successes and literally thousands of performances, the premiere of her newest composition, "A portrait of Rachel Carson," is a major milestone.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Portnoy: Much, much better.

That was good.

We shot a little better.

Does that feel okay?

>> McPartland: Yeah.

>> Portnoy: Whatever we do, you can just fill in whatever you want.

>> McPartland: I'm just trying not to get in the way.

>> Portnoy: You're not.

You're not.

>> Dakers: How significant is this particular work to you?

>> McPartland: Oh, much more significant than anything I've done so far, something totally different from what I've done before.

And I'm just hoping it will make a dent somewhere, that I'll be able to record it.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> McPartland: Well, I'm so interested in the environmental way of the world, how bad things are getting.

And of course, years ago, I read Rachel's book, and I kept thinking I would love to make some kind of protest about the terrible things that are going on.

And I thought, Well, the only thing I can do is to put it into music and play something out of my head.

>> She wants to do something.

I mean, she-- we've watched the Al Gore film on the environment many times, and she's probably donated, and she's done a lot of things.

And I think she's excited that she's doing something.

And also, how can it not be exciting to play with a big-- all these other musicians in doing a piece like that?

So we just thought it was a very important moment, and I might not be able to verbalize why, but it seemed very deeply important to her, the whole thing.

>> McPartland: I just improvised something that was in my head.

>> Dakers: The piece was transcribed by Kristen Seddon orchestrated for full orchestra, and arranged by Alan Broadbent.

>> Portnoy: So they sent me the parts, we read through it, I made a CD, sent it to Marian so she could hear it, and then we thought, Why not have her come, if she was free at this date, and play along with the orchestra, and then provide a cadenza between the two movements, and have a public performance of the piece?

[applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> Dakers: The work begins as a musical description of a picturesque, pastoral scene, not unlike the first line of "Silent Spring."

The clarinet is the voice of Carson, representing her beloved birds.

♪ [birds twittering] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Portnoy: Well, our parts are, of course, written out.

So we look at the music.

We know exactly what the tempos are, what the dynamics are.

Marian is the one that's really doing the improvisation around what we are playing.

>> McPartland: I thought, This is going to be an orchestral piece.

I'll just come in in the middle and do a cadenza by myself, and then the orchestra will do the last movement.

And then, I thought, Well, that's going to look silly if they play the whole first movement and then I walk on and sit down at the piano and-- that isn't going to look right.

So I decided I had to be onstage with them and just play a few notes kind of in between, not get in their way but play a little something in the way of an accompaniment.

And then I can go into my solo piece in the middle.

And then, when I end that, Dr. Portnoy will finish with the last movement.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Portnoy: I said to her-- or she said to me, "How long should I play?"

And I said, "As long as you like.

If it moves you to play a little bit longer, just play a little bit longer."

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Portnoy: And, of course, I don't know when it's going to end, so I kind of look at her after a few minutes, and I can almost tell by the facial expression-- and she'll kind of give me a little smile-- that we're coming to the end.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Portnoy: And we kind of-- I can feel the chords kind of coming to a cadence, and it'll stop, and I start with the next movement.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Dakers: Fittingly, the year 2007 marks the centennial of Carson's birth and a renewed interest in her work.

>> McPartland: I was thinking strictly of her view of the environment and what she did to make people aware that things they were doing were wrong.

But time went by, and her book just got left out for a while.

Maybe it'll come back and people will get curious and start reading it again.

>> Gourdal: She's very happy, but she's more happy that she might be doing something for Rachel Carson than for herself, you know.

She keeps asking me, "You think this is going to be good for Rachel Carson, that people are going to read her books?

You think that--" She's thinking more of that than she's thinking about anything for herself.

I mean, she did it for her personal pleasure, and then, she's hoping that it'll boost people thinking about the environment, obviously, but also Rachel Carson, who she obviously admires.

>> Male speaker: You know, I think Rachel would be very honored.

And she loved music.

And anything-- anytime people take notice of these problems and remember some things she said, I think it's very important.

Certainly now, it seems as though the environment is under worse pressure and more and more severe threats every year, and we seem to be ruled by people who, frankly, don't give a damn.

Anything, anything helps.

And I think getting the arts involved is a wonderful thing, and I think Rachel would be thrilled.

She was a remarkable woman.

She was very private.

She was very gentle, very sensitive, and, obviously, a wonderful writer.

She enjoyed nothing more than being able to lie outside in the woods in Maine and watch birds for hours on end, which made it almost more remarkable that she was willing to take on the job of writing that book while she was dying.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Portnoy: The first movement is very melodic.

The second movement is much more rhythmic, driving, very percussive.

There were a lot of percussion in here.

And so they're really two contrasting movements.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> McPartland: It is a classical piece.

That's the only way I could describe it.

And trying to make statements musically about cutting down trees, pesticides, losing so many birds and insects, flowers and things that have all been ruined by the things that are going on, especially with pesticides-- although that's a pretty hard thing to describe musically.

>> Yes, and so the mixture between her classical training and her environmental engagement, it seems to be a natural thing.

And now everybody will know that part of her, but it's always been part of her.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> McPartland: It's definitely an homage to Rachel Carson and hoping that people will listen and-- well, like with global warming, everything that's happening, I'm just hoping it may stir some people up to know that terrible things are happening to the environment, in fact to the whole world.

So this is just my small contribution, saying musically that terrible things are happening and you'd better listen.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Gobeil: Could sit here and listen to and watch her for hours, but we do have limited time, so, Beryl, before we go to this next piece, there's kind of a unique composition, a unique perspective, on "When the Saints go Marching In," which is what we're going to close out on.

>> Dakers: Well, she just sat down--this was her encore after premiering the piece.

And of course, the piece was done in a classical motif.

She sort of returned to her roots with "When the Saints Go Marching In," but very, very slow and dignified, quiet piece as, I think, she reflected on her next venture.

>> Gobeil: And her next venture as she moves on kind of reminds me of the program "Radio Jazz"-- "Piano Jazz, " rather-- where it's interesting, and you sit there and you listen to her talk with her guests.

And her guests have ranged from Billy Taylor to Herbie Hancock to Diana Krall.

Does she have a-- >> Dakers: To Keith Jarrett.

>> Gobeil: To Keith Jarrett.

That's right.

Who is her ideal guest, or who is the next guest she's trying to get?

>> Dakers: You'll find out in just a moment.

As she approaches her 90th birthday, let's hope she gets him.

♪ [When the Saints Go Marching In] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Dakers: If McPartland's activity at this age seems at all remarkable-- she'll celebrate her 90th birthday in 2008-- be sure not to mention that fact to her.

>>> Is there one guest that you absolutely would love to have?

>> McPartland: There's one guest I'd love to have, but I...

I don't think there's anybody that I can say, "Oh, I'll never get this person."

I always think, Somewhere down the road, I will get him.

And that is Stevie Wonder.

I really would love to have him on the show.

And I think he would like to be on.

I wonder if he knows about it.

But he's always surrounded by an entourage.

I could never get near him.

But I'm trying.

I never thought I would have Keith Jarrett, but that turned out to be wonderful.

So there's still plenty of fine musicians out there for me to ask if they'll do "Piano Jazz."

[applause and bravos] Captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. www.compuscriptsinc.com [applause and bravos]