Jimmy mcpartland biography

American jazz cornetist (1907–1991)

Musical artist

James Dugald "Jimmy" McPartland (March 15, 1907 – March 13, 1991) was an American cornetist. He worked with Eddie Condon, Art Hodes, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, and Tommy Dorsey, often leading his own bands. He was married to pianist Marian McPartland.

Early Life

McPartland was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a music teacher and baseball player. He and his siblings for some time lived in orphanages. After being removed from one orphanage for fighting, he got in further trouble with the law. He credited music with turning him around; he started violin at age five, and took up the cornet at age 15.

Music career

Austin High School Gang

McPartland was a member of the Austin High School Gang, with Bud Freeman (tenor sax), Frank Teschemacher (clarinet), his brother Dick McPartland (banjo/guitar), brother-in-law Jim Lanigan (bass, tuba and violin), Joe Sullivan (piano), and Dave Tough (drums) in the 1920s. They were inspired by the recordings they heard at the local malt shop, the Spoon and Straw. They studied and tried to duplicate what they heard on recordings by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and others, and would frequently visit Louis Armstrong, who was a few years their senior, and King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

McPartland’s career spanned more than five decades, during which he played an integral role in the evolution of Chicago jazz. His work with the Austin High School Gang helped de

Jimmy McPartland was born on March 15, 1907, in Chicago. Jimmy played violin as a child, and at 15 switched permanently to the cornet. In the early 1920s, he met a group of fellow jazz enthusiasts who became known as the Austin High Gang. They were inspired by the ODJB, the NORK, and King Oliver, and started their own jazz band.

McPartland was most inspired by Bix Beiderbecke. In 1924, he moved to New York and befriended Bix there. Bix chose the cornet that McPartland would play throughout his career. Jimmy succeeded Bix as the Wolverines’ cornetist and made his recording debut with them. In 1927 he joined Ben Pollack’s orchestra and played alongside Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.

In December 1927, McPartland rejoined his Austin High School friends to record four legendary titles for Okeh as McKenzie and Condon’s Chicagoans.

McPartland stayed with Ben Pollack into the fall of 1929. By the early 1930s he was back in Chicago, and was quite active there—though he made few records until after the war.

Jimmy McPartland joined the Army and landed in Normandy on D-Day. At a USO show in 1944, he met the British pianist Marian Turner and was immediately impressed by her on both a musical and a personal level. They were married on February 3, 1945.

They worked together steadily for a few years. Jimmy always encouraged Marian to find her own voice on the piano and he encouraged her to play as modern as she wanted although he never tried to modernize his own style.

Jimmy McPartland continued to lead his own Chicago jazz bands. In addition to his playing, Jimmy McPartland had an outgoing personality and when he was on stage, he became the genial emcee.

Jimmy and Marian were divorced in 1967 but they always remained on friendly terms and occasionally played together. McPartland’s health gradually declined in the 1980s and his last recordings were made at a 1986 all-star concert.

As Jimmy McPartland’s health worsened (he suffered from lung c

(b. 15 March 1907 in Chicago, Illinois; d. 13 March 1991 in Port Washington, New York), jazz cornetist and bandleader known as one of the founders of the “Chicago School” of jazz.

McPartland was one of four children of James McPartland, a sometime boxer and baseball player who was also a music teacher, and his wife, Jeannie Munn, a schoolteacher. His brother Dick was also was a musician. The family was dysfunctional, although sometime after the parents divorced, they reconciled and moved into a somewhat better section of Chicago from that in which they had been living. This was the area served by Austin High School, famed in the history of Chicago jazz. Although young McPartland graduated from John Hay Grammar School, he quit high school after two years and devoted his time to music. Jimmy and Dick had both been taught the violin by their father. As the boys grew older they took up other instruments, with Jimmy playing the cornet by age fifteen, perhaps because it was louder than other instruments used in jazz.

Jimmy and Dick joined with other classmates to form a band. Because the musical group members attended Austin High School, they became known as the Austin High Gang and learned music by listening to records in a restaurant they frequented. For a time they used the name Blue Friars, which included, along with McPartland on cornet, Bud Freeman (tenor sax), Frank Teschemacher (clarinet), Dick McPartland (guitar), and Dave Tough (drums). In 1924 the seventeen-year-old McPartland replaced the famous cornetist Bix Beiderbecke in a jazz group called the Wolverines,

at which time Beiderbecke personally chose a Conn Victor cornet for McPartland. Both instrumentalists played in a clean, lyrical style. From 1926 to 1927, McPartland played with Art Kassel and in late 1927 joined Ben Pollack’s band. The cornetist was busy with freelance recording from the late 1920s into the early 1930s and played with Russ Columbo from 1931

Cornetist Jimmy McPartland and pianist Marian McPartland were married for 22 years (1945-67). Their careers in jazz, if taken together, spanned a remarkable 90 years, from Jimmy McPartland gigging in 1923 up until Marian’s death in 2013. Individually they both had rather significant careers and, despite having different styles, they always enjoyed playing together, even after their divorce.

James Dugald McPartland was born on Mar. 15, 1907 in Chicago. He was a bit of a tough kid and he and his siblings, which included his older brother Dick McPartland (1905-57) who played banjo and guitar, spent part of their childhoods in orphanages. Jimmy McPartland was frequently in fights and had some run-ins with the police as a teenager, but he found music and credited it with ultimately saving his life. While he played violin starting when he was five, at 15 he switched permanently to the cornet.

McPartland’s friends of the early 1920s, who became known as the Austin High Gang, included fellow teenagers who were amazed by the playing of the New Orleans Rhythms Kings, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Oliver’s second cornetist, Louis Armstrong. They all resolved to take up instruments and it is fair to say that they were successful. Among the members of the “gang” were tenor-saxophonist Bud Freeman, clarinetist Frankie Teschemacher, pianist Joe Sullivan, guitarist Eddie Condon, drummer Dave Tough, Jimmy’s brother Dick, and his brother-in-law bassist and tuba player Jim Lanigan.

McPartland developed quicker than the other up-and-coming youngsters and, after graduating high school, he played with them briefly in a group called the Blue Friars in addition to having jobs with such local bands as the Maroon Five and ensembles led by Al Haid (1923), Frisco Haase, and Charles “Murph” Podolsky. The cornetist was most inspired at the time by Bix Beiderbecke but already displayed his own musica