[Marian McPartland, jazz pianist and composer.] Autograph Letter Signed to Les Tompkins of Jazz magazine ‘Crescendo’, announcing a collaboration with ‘charming’ Benny Goodman, with news of other jazz greats, including Quincy Jones.

A good letter, full of content. 2pp, 8vo. Air mail letter with New York postmark, 30 September 1963. Signed ‘Marian’ and addressed to ‘Mr. Les Tompkins / 96, St Helier Ave / Morden / Surrey’. Writing after the publication of an interview with her by Tompkins in ‘Crescendo’, she begins: ‘Dear Les. Thank you, & Tony also, for the copies of Crescendo - Boy! I was verbose, wasn’t I! I got a kick out of the record review, & thought everyone was very complimentary. Wish Steve Race had been there! He always insists you can tell a female player (and of course I think that is a lot of you-know-what)’. ‘Like a real idiot’, she has lost his questionnaire, and asks for another copy. ‘Big news. I’m going on a month’s concert tour with Benny Goodman. He called me, & I decided it would be a fun thing to do - Red Norro will be going, Jimmy Wyble on guitar, & Steve Swallow on bass - Benny & I have been rehearsing together & he’s really inspiring to play with, and very charming -’. She announces the return of Dill Jones (‘he reopened at the Gaslight Club for an indefinite stay’), and says that she and ‘Jimmy’ (her husband) ‘played the Central Plaza yesterday’: ‘it’s always a big reunion for us with our friends. Some sitters in were Jo Jones, Tyrel Glenn, Wild Bill Davision, Cutty Cutshall & Louis Metcalfe.’ They have both ‘been busy writing lately and are beginning to get some good songs’. She hopes that ‘Sarah Vaughn will do another of my tunes in her next album. Quincey [sic] Jones took a couple with him when he left for England last week.’