Jazzwoman's Voice Should Not Be Solo

The Boston Herald

The voice was stunning - throaty, hoarse, old; not the voice of youth which routinely comes out of the radio but of a woman long lived. I happened on it in the car last weekend. Press ``seek'' and look what ye shall find.

I found myself having an epiphany. Why had I never before heard an old woman on the radio, hosting a show? I'd heard old men - Jerry Williams, Paul Harvey, Alaister Cooke a long time ago. But never a woman.

OK, so maybe I was predisposed to this epiphany, having just babysat for a neighbor's 7-year-old twins. The boy and I were playing “jacks'' and I was winning and he very innocently looked at me and said, “You know, you're pretty good for an old lady.’'

Maybe old was on my mind. Except I think I was struck by what I was hearing because it was different. Most radio voices are bland and predictable, in the middle of a kind of audio bell curve. And most are male.

On TV we realize it's all young people and older people trying to look young. But on the radio? A young voice was a requisite I'd never noticed or thought of before, though I should have. Dick Clark is 75. Casey Kasem is 72 but who would know?

Where did this gravely voiced woman come from and was she a regular and was she really playing the piano, too?

Marian McPartland, I later Googled and learned, was born in March 1918, which makes her nearly 87. A “jazz legend,'' she” continues to showcase the world's top musicians on NPR's longest-running and most widely carried jazz program, `Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz.' ''

She's been the show's host for 27 years. Who knew?

Born in England, she was part of a vaudeville act that entertained troops during World War II. After the war she came to New York and formed her own trio. Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington came to listen to her. She's made more than 50 albums, has her own recording company, has written books and won all kinds of awards.

But what is most amazing, what distinguishes her from everyone else is not only that she's still doing what she does, composing and playing the piano. But also that she is speaking on air in an old woman's voice. And old is so seldom heard in public. And when heard is hardly listened to.

In today's culture it's all about youth. Looking young, acting young and sounding young. 

But everyone gets old and you can nip and tuck and pump out and pump up, but age eventually trumps camouflage.

Vocal cords age, too, and though there's cosmetic surgery for this, (did Dick Clark have it?) hearing an old voice that is full of wit and wisdom is a thing to be savored.

Old men? They take on a kind of cache with the passing of years. Andy Rooney is a cute curmudgeon. But old women? Where are they all? Why is Marian McPartland's lovely old voice a solitary one?