Share this page using one of the following services:

• Facebook
• Twitter

• Stumble Upon

• Reddit
• Digg

What is this?

March 21, 2008 - James Dugald McPartland, legendary jazz cornetist, was born on March 15, 1907, in Chicago. He started playing violin at age 5, then took up the cornet at 15. As a teenager, he became interested in jazz at the Spoon and Straw, a drug store where Austin High School students gathered to listen to jazz records on the Victrola. As a result, McPartland became the leader of the now-legendary sextet, The Austin High School Gang. This group originally included Jimmy and his brother Dick, Frank Teschemacher, and Bud Freeman. Eddie Condon, Dave Tough, Jim Lanigan, and Joe Sullivan later joined the group.

When Bix Beiderbecke left The Wolverines, he recommended that McPartland, then 17, replace him. McPartland made his first recording while he was with the Wolverines in 1925. He remained with this group for just over a year, and then worked with bandleader Art Kassel and others before joining Ben Pollack in 1927, when his bandmates included Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, and Bud Freeman. His work with different bands continued until the start of WWII, when he and Teagarden enlisted in the Army.

During the war, McPartland met his bride-to-be, Marian Turner, in Eupen, Belgium, while she was playing for USO camp shows. A G.I. musicians' jam session brought them together, and after many performances with a small G.I. combo playing for front-line troops, they were married in Aachen, Germany. In 1946, Jimmy McPartland returned to the U.S. with his British bride, and they put a quartet together in Jimmy's hometown of Chicago.

Later, they moved to New York, where Jimmy was instrumental in helping Marian form her own trio. She attributes much of her success in music to his help and support. They were later divorced, but remained friends and musical partners for the rest of Jimmy's life. The couple remarried in 1991, just two weeks before Jimmy's death.

During his long, illustrious career, McPartland starred in a television special (The Magic Horn) and acted in summer stock in Show Boat. He also appeared on network TV shows over the years and recorded landmark albums, of which Shades of Bix — featuring Coleman Hawkins, George Wettling, and Gene Krupa — is the finest.

All songs recorded at the Danny Kaye Playhouse on June 19, 2007, for the Jimmy McPartland Centennial Concert, except "St. James Infirmary," "Basin Street Blues," and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," recorded for Jimmy McPartland's Piano Jazz program in 1990.