Bruce Hornsby was interviewed by the lovely Marian McPartland in 2005, when she was aged 87. She’d been at the piano every day for 84 years, and kept up with Bruce beautifully!
An improvisational player herself, Marian’s radio show lasted over forty years, interview over 500 musicians from Mel Torme to Elvis Costello to Bruce.
Marian was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2004, and then awarded the OBE in the UK in 2013.
Her obituary notes:
“The odds against any woman finding success as a jazz musician in the late 1940s and early ’50s were formidable, but Ms. McPartland overcame them with grace. Listeners were charmed by her Old World stage presence and captivated by her elegant, harmonically lush improvisations, which reflected both her classical training and her fascination with modern jazz.”
You can pick up Marian McPartland’s Bruce Hornsby interview on CD at Amazon.