BWW Reviews: Stacy Sullivan Honors Piano Jazz Legend Marian McPartland With Enchanting and Enlightening Performance at Don't Tell Mama

She saunters into the room like Auntie Mame at her own birthday party. Greeting guests and shaking hands, she welcomes you "Oklahoma style" with a warm, affectionate, honey smile that instantly puts you at ease and makes you eager to listen to her, much like the great piano jazz woman she's honoring in song, Marian McPartland. Stacy Sullivan tells the audience she became interested in McPartland when she was asked to sing at her memorial in 2013. With her show last Saturday night at Don't Tell Mama, On The Air: Songs for Marian McPartland (which enjoyed a late September run of four shows at the York Theatre), the multi MAC-award winning Sullivan has created a beautifully crafted, biographically-driven show featuring the original music, the history, and the life of a jazz icon, who was best known for hosting Piano Jazz on National Public Radio from 1978-2011. Now Stacy Sullivan has made us all interested in the amazing Marian McPartland.

The show's excellent musical director and virtuoso jazz pianist, Jon Weber (who replaced McPartland as host of Piano Jazz), starts the evening off right with the McPartland classic composition (written exclusively for her NPR show), "Kaleidoscope," as Sullivan sets up the evening by historically referencing McPartland's youth. Sliding into a kickin' Duke Ellington medley of "Beginning to See The Light" (Ellington/George/Hodges/James), "It Don't Mean a Thing" (Ellington/Mills), and "Jump for Joy" (Ellington/Kuller/Webster), Sullivan, gloriously vocalizes McPartland's childhood longing for musical freedom on the piano despite the rigid classical upbringing of her controlling English mother. To demonstrate this musically, Weber plays "Chopin Waltz Op. 69 No. 1" with Sullivan melting into "All the Things You Are" (Kern/Hammerstein). Sullivan jokes, "Mother is pleased." But when an older Marian takes up with an American jazz trumpeter (Jimmy McPartland) all hell breaks loose. "Mother is definitely not pleased," Sullivan comically offers in a highbrow English accent. Then singing with the longing of youth and the blossoming maturity of a young woman's first love, Sullivan croons the heartfelt "My Heart Stood Still" (Rodgers/Hart). To further savor the moment, Weber responds with an amazing piano solo. Sullivan and Weber communicate so well musically you feel like you are listening to a classic WWII radio show where your mind wanders to the romance of war and the unfulfilled promise of love.

Sullivan tells us McPartland featured some of the great jazz musicians of the 20th century on her radio show, including saxophonists Ravi Coltrane and Chris Potter, bassist Christian McBride, trumpeters Joe Wilder and Roy Hargrove, and pianists Freddy Cole, Bill Charlap, Oscar Peterson, Harry Connick, Jr., and Burt Bacharach. McPartland was also a big fan of Broadway tunes being resurrected as jazz standards. Digging into her Oklahoma roots, Sullivan treats us to a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic from Oklahoma, "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," and an intensely dramatic "Loving You" from Stephen Sondheim's Passion. Two more McPartland songs are added to the mix; a soft samba of "Twilight World" (McPartland/Johnny Mercer) followed by "Stranger In a Dream" (McPartland/Caesar), where bass player Tom Hubbard absolutely shines in support of Sullivan's smoldering vocals which display a quiet sensuality in just the right shade of blues. Sullivan offered yet another loving dedication to a McPartland favorite musician, Mercer Ellington (the son of Duke Ellington) by singing the stunning and sensually provocative "Prelude to a Kiss" (Ellington/ Gordon), whose sultry affect was intensified by the mood indigo noir lighting of Jason Ellis.

We also learn that throughout the years on her radio show, McPartland championed many women in jazz like Marcia Ball, (a New Orleans based barrelhouse boogie and blues pianist). In her honor, Sullivan raises the roof by wailing out a fun, bluesy "Nightlife" by Willie Nelson (who also happened to be one of McPartland's favorite radio guests). Remarkably, McPartland supported other women who have influenced The New York cabaret nightlife world--Alicia Keys, Jane Monheit, Cassandra Wilson, Blossom Dearie, Barbara Carroll, Diana Krall, and NOra Jones. [Here McPartland's interview with NOra Jones in YouTube Video, below.] Once again that Sullivan/Weber magical musical connection is highlighted in one of the best combos of the evening, a haunting mash-up of "September in the Rain" (Warren/Dublin) with NOra Jones' "Come Away with Me." Sullivan so completely captured the beauty and youthful longing of this impeccable Weber arrangement she leaves the audience absolutely spellbound with the moment lingering far beyond her final notes.

We are snapped out of our "jazz fog" with the bright tempo of an unexpected mash-up of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and the MiLes Davis classic "So What," directly followed by an appropriate closer, the ultimate jazz classic "Lullaby of Birdland" (Shearing/Weiss). But it is with their encore, "I've Got a Crush On You" (George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin), performed together simply seated at the piano that shows us the great love and musical respect Sullivan and Weber have for one another. (Weber was also Sullivan's Musical Director on her award-winning Peggy Lee tribute shows).

McPartland's legacy would have lived on in her music, as well as through Weber's hosting of Piano Jazz. Now that legacy is being further enhanced and championed by Stacy Sullivan, who on a recent episode of Weber's radio show was aptly referred to as one of the "Legends in the making who are taking jazz into the 21st century." Here, here.

Photo by Russ Weatherford.

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