British jazz pianist Marian McPartland was a beloved musical institution whose performing roots dated back to the WWII years in Europe. She was also an important disseminator and educator, whose radio program PIANO JAZZ was the longest-running series on NPR. A highly sensitive pianist who never stopped appreciating and assimilating new ideas, McPartland had a highly diverse range of tastes and passions, not to mention a series of consistently beautiful albums spanning the last three decades of the 20th century and into the 21st.