At first, McPartland was so nervous about her songwriting she wouldn't take the credit for her own tunes.

"Years ago, I felt very insecure about writing songs, and I wrote one at the Hickory House," she said. "Somebody said, 'That's a nice song,' so then it was O.K. for me to say that I had written it. Isn't that sick?"

Starting in the 1960s, McPartland traveled to schools around the United States, encouraging students to develop an appreciation for jazz. She would use popular songs to introduce young listeners to the many sounds of jazz.

"I'll probably pick a tune that they know, something they've all heard, like the theme of [television program] 'M.A.S.H.,' for instance. They all know that. Then I'll do it another way, maybe like jazz, blues or something slow. And I'll go through a whole thumbnail history of jazz. I'll do some boogie-woogie and so on, and really kind of grab them with that. But as long as you know tunes that they know, I think that helps a lot."

McPartland took that approach to the airwaves in 1979. Her weekly show, “Piano Jazz” became one of the most popular programs on public radio, airing across the United States for over three decades. Each week she would engage noted musicians in casual, relaxed interviews. She would take turns with her guests playing songs, and then would perform duets with them. Both in its music and its conversations, McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” expressed the core jazz virtue of improvisation.