Picture a military tent in Belgium in the winter of 1944, artillery rumbling outside, and a young English woman in a steel helmet and GI combat boots playing jazz on an accordion strapped to her chest. That woman was Margaret Marian Turner, who dropped out of London's Guildhall School of Music, took the stage name Marian Page, joined a vaudeville piano act, entertained Allied troops with the USO, and met cornetist Jimmy McPartland at a front-line jam session. This episode follows her from a strict convent childhood with perfect pitch and no formal lessons until 16 to becoming Marian McPartland, one of American jazz's most important archivists and advocates.

We cover the three strikes a critic said she had against her in 1950s Manhattan, her decade-long residency at the Hickory House, the night Duke Ellington told her she played too many not ...