Chapter 32

On arriving on the troop ship I am met by a sound engineer and taken into a small studio with three full size concert pianos. Now I get it. Marian McPartland  broadcast a weekly hour long show on WGBO-FM where she would chew the fat with a featured artist. For instance in the year 2000 the show included a tribute to the late trumpeter Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison and the late bass player Andy Simpkins, saxophonist Joe Lovano and bassist Dave Holland, pianist Sarah Jane Cion, pianist Ray Kennedy, vocalist Monica Mancini, vibraphonist Cecilia Smith, and pianist Denny Zeitlin.  Virtuoso Latin pianist Eddie Palmieri, modal pianist Pamela Hines, orchestral arranger and pianist Lalo Schifrin, bassist Carline Ray and arranger/pianist Keith Ingham.

I am given a list and see that I am to interview George Searing, who I have recently been, and Billy Taylor who I haven’t. It is worth pointing out that in the year 2000, Marian McPartland was 91 and those who are sharp at maths will work out that she was born in 1918, but still a sharp as ever. Shearing and Taylor’s styles of playing are very different so this encounter will be interesting.  As it turned out, I was more of an interviewee rather than an interviewer. Taylor was very interested in how my style developed. When I started I was playing Dixieland mixed with popular tunes, like “Davenport Blues”, but after listening to Parker and Monk their sound started to rub off on me.  I formed my own group playing at George Weins club. In those days my playing was stiff and boring. My husband Jimmy said nobody could learn to swing, you either can or you can’t. But I learnt. As I am at a piano I play “Rain Or Come Shine” to illustrate my point. I ask Billy Taylor how he develops his ideas, does he think ahead?  He says he does think ahead, and is harmonically orientated. He illustrates this by playing a melody and improvising on it. All this time George has sat quietly at his piano, just gently smiling.  Billy Taylor asked him how he developed his style. George said when he came to NY they wanted to turn him into another Alec Templeton, or and English Art Tatum. George thought, what do they want an English Art Tatum, or Fats Waller , or Teddy Wilson  for, when they’ve got the real ones. So he went back to England and developed his left hand style from a mixture of  Milt Buckner and Glen Miller. To illustrate his point he played “Roses are Blooming in Picardy”, but laughed and said he was trying to kill off his quartet so he wouldn’t carry on with the tune. Billy asks him how he developed his quartet style. The “Shearing  voicings”. ‘To put it simply’, says George. ‘It is all built around a major scale’, as he is talking he plays the notes.

Cmaj6, Ddim, Cmaj6, Fdim, Cmaj6, Adim, Bdim, C

So the Guitar Vibes and Bass would play the notes under the piano, and the piano would play them all. Very simple, but unique to us then. To make it work the bass line would have to be written, otherwise, an improvised bass line on chords only would result in a shambles. The bass line should be a melody in itself.’ He plays “Autum Leaves”, to illustrait this and shows where it comes from by playing a Bach left hand under the melody. 

We finish the broadcast by me and Bill joining George on “Autumn Leaves” it should have sounded a mess but we made it our own. Afterwards the sound engineer, says that there is usually a phone in with the ships crew asking general questions about  music. How are we fixed for an extra hour. I say I don’t mind, but the other two have to be elsewhere. So it is just me, Marian MacPartland, and half a million crew members. At least one of them must have a sensible question to ask. The hour whizzes by, but the last questioner throws me a curved ball. Not a music question but a statement of fact, ‘I know under all that prosthetic you are really Joe Coolz, watch your back’ Then the line goes dead.

Was that a threat or a warning? The voice was nondescript, mid galaxy accent, could be any one of millions. He obviously knew who I was so that must narrow it down to the nearest star cluster. I ask the sound engineer if there was any way we could trace the call. ‘Only if you have a IGBI, I.D.’

Well it so happens I have, but it is back at the apartment, I should have slipped it into my handbag. ‘Where is Doil when you need him?’

I must have said that out loud as a voice behind me says.

‘You looking for me?’

It was Doil with Smith in tow. Smith had a smirk a mile wide on his face. I definitely do not like him. Maybe the call telling me to watch my back was referring to the slime ball standing next to Doil. As a big chief in the IGBI, he could trace the call, but if the call was warning me about Smith then, I would be giving my informant to the enemy. Doil tells the sound engineer to beat it. Smith seats himself at the sound desk and pulls the plug.

‘Can’t be too careful.’

I feel like hitting him with my handbag.

Doil informs me that the last fish fry didn’t go so well and maybe I’m not trying hard enough to play the right notes. I tell him that the notes are nothing to do with Joe Coolz, but Fats. If I, as Fats aren’t playing the right notes then maybe he should release the real Fats and let me get on with my life. I say all this in the demure British accent of  Marian Mcpartland which doesn’t have the emphasis I hoped for. Doil laughs and Smith smirks away.

‘I am afraid buddy boy you have signed away any right you had to a normal life. Just dematerialise back home and we will contact you for the next time. Don’t do anything rash, like get rid of Brian. Keep everything as it is.’ This last statement is puzzling. Is Brian a IGBI spy? Not as such is my guess, but he has just been ratted on. He is their bug.