A Delicate Mood - Marian McPartland

A Delicate Balance

A Delicate Balance
Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland plays Grand Piano and Electronic Piano by Wurlitzer
Jay Leonhart - Bass
Jimmy Madison - Drums
Cover Design: Studio Seven
Front Cover Photo: Robert E. Smith
Liner Photo: Jack Anderson
Halcyon Records #105
1972

From the back cover: Jimmy Madison and Jay Leonhart have worked with me many times, but this is the first recording session for the three of us. Jimmy and Jay are both fine musicians and very special people. They are inventive, they have sensitivity and humor and they love to play. Alec Wilder has a word regarding their unusual qualities. He has heard us play together in clubs and in concert, and he says, "Their spectrum is much broader and more subtle that that of most players of their particular instruments. For although they are accompanying Marian, they play with the musical stature and responsibility of soloists. I don't mean that they tend to 'take over', but that their unique musical viewpoint brings an element of strong intensity to the music."

I started using the Wurlitzer Electronic Piano in 1958 at the Hickory House, and I had such fun playing it, that I decided to include it in a recording I was making at the time. Since then, I have used the Electronic Piano consistently. I enjoy it particularly on quiet pieces, like "A Delicate Balance," to add a different color. It is like having another solo instrument; sometimes I play the melody line on it, while accompanying myself with my left hand on the regular piano.

We chose a variety of tunes for this album. Standards, contemporary songs, a beautiful waltz, written for me by Alec Wilder, and a swinging blues by bassist Jon Burr. I included three of my own pieces and we have combined the various mood and feeling these songs represent to us. – Marian McPartland.

From Billboard - June 17, 1972: For a quiet evening of listening pleasure, Marian McPartland proves in this LP that the would be difficult to beat. Her rendition of "El Condor Pasa" is sensitive, yet she manages to extrapolate with fervor. Other tunes include "God Bless The Child" and the title tune "A Delicate Balance."

A Delicate Balance
Melancholy Mood
More
Freedom Jazz Dance
Solace
El Condor Pasa
Jazz Walt For A Friend
Something
Britannia Blues
God Bless The Child