Music

89.1 Jazz honors Marian McPartland, turns 95

89.1 WEMU | By Linda Yohn

Published March 20, 2013 at 8:23 PM EDT

Today we honored a woman who helped shape the history of jazz as a musician, band leader, composer,

author and trailblazing public broadcaster: Marian McPartland. The host of "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" is 95 years old today. Although she now longer hosts the show, it remains on the air as NPR's longest running jazz program. All jazz fans have been touched by this woman who helped us make sense of the complexity of jazz improvisation. Long live Marian McPartland!

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Linda Yohn

Linda Yohn simply cannot remember a day in her life that was not filled with music. Her early life was full of changes as the daughter of a well-respected cancer research scientist who moved his family about, but one thing was constant: the love of music instilled by her mother. So, when it seemed life was too hard to bear, young Linda would listen to her radio, play her guitar, dance her heart out and sing at the top of her lungs. So, it isn’t so strange that “older” Linda still does all those things!

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