Billy Taylor

Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

Balwin Piano showroom
New York, New York
United States of America

9 October 1978

Billy Taylor - piano
Marian McPartland - piano

01. Intro 0:32
02. Minor Blues (Billy Taylor's Theme) (Billy Taylor) McPartland out 0:37
03. Conversation 2:02
04. C A G (Billy Taylor) McPartland out 3:44
05. Conversation 3:16
06. All the Things You Are (Oscar Hammerstein & Jerome Kern) 6:49
07. Conversation 1:59
08. I Didn't Know What Time It Was (Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart) 3:58
09. Conversation 7:06
10. Conversation 0:29
11. Capricious (Billy Taylor) 5:07
12. Conversation 3:18
13. Ambiance (Marian McPartland) Taylor out 5:03
14. Conversation 2:48
15. Conversation 0:09
16. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Billy Taylor) 7:13
17. Outro 1:31

Total Time: 55:48

FM>Total Recorder>HD>CD Wave Editor>FLAC>VUze>Dimeadozen
Quality: A

Originally broadcast on 1 April 1979, the first Piano Jazz broadcast.
Rebroadcast on 10 April 2009 and 9 January 2011.

http://www.npr.org/2009/04/10/102941429/billy-taylor-on-piano-jazzs-debut-episode

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re-seed of the following torrent shared by woessner on 10 January 2011:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=339442

re-upload by ubu on 21 August 2013 (amended info, added FFP, FLAC unchanged)

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a different capture was shared by Antimudshark on 13 April 2009 - here's some additional info, plus FFP from that version:


Program notes:

In 1978, South Carolina ETV Radio had just wrapped production on the Peabody
Award-winning series American Popular Song. Co-hosted by songwriter and composer
Alec Wilder and jazz pianist and songwriter Loonis McGlohon, the show featured
performers such as Mabel Mercer, Bobby Short and Johnny Hartman, who would talk
about and perform some of the great works from the American popular songbook.
Despite the show's success, Wilder's failing health meant he couldn't carry the
show past its original run of 40 episodes. However, Wilder, producer Dick Phipps
and director of South Carolina ETV Radio William Hay felt that the program's
simple format of intimate conversation and original musical performance was just
the thing that public-radio audiences craved. NPR agreed.

Wilder recommended his friend Marian McPartland as the ideal host for a new
show. She could play in any style, she knew everyone on the scene and she had
previous radio experience. With Phipps and Hay as her producers, McPartland
began recording episodes of a new NPR program in the fall of 1978 at the Baldwin
Piano showrooms in New York City.

The first broadcast of Piano Jazz hit the airwaves on April 1, 1979.
McPartland's guest was pianist, educator and jazz ambassador Dr. Billy Taylor.
The show included all of the elements that would come to define Piano Jazz.
There was jazz history, as Taylor talked about Art Tatum, Duke Ellington and
Oscar Pettiford. And there was an element of education to the conversation: The
two discussed the arts of "comping," or reharmonizing standards and
improvisation.

Of course, the piano performances were the highlight of the hour. Taylor played
his hit "C A G" after describing its origins, and McPartland joined him on his
equally well-known "Capricious." Piano duets weren't that common in 1979 � they
aren't all that common in performance now. But McPartland started a tradition
that has become a foundational element of the show when she and Taylor
demonstrated their stylistic mastery on "All the Things You Are."

Originally recorded Oct. 9, 1978.

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=244890