Susan Werner in Marian McPartland's show on NPR

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Songwriter Susan Werner is about to be included among the ranks of some of the world's greatest jazz musicians and composers - if only for an hour - when she appears as the featured guest on National Public Radio's Piano Jazz, the prestigious interview-performance show hosted by celebrated jazz icon Marian McPartland. The program will begin airing November 29 in national syndication. It's quite unusual for a songwriter to be included with the likes of Tony Bennett, Toots Thieleman, Bobby Short, Shirley Horn and Dave Brubeck, but the honor follows on the heels of the release of I Can't Be New (Koch Records), Werner's universally acclaimed CD of all original compositions in the style of the Great American Songbook.

Werner performs the title track from I Can't Be New on Piano Jazz, along with other originals “No One Needs to Know” and “Let's Regret This in Advance” (currently in rotation on Sirius Satellite's “Disorder 24” Channel), and joins McPartland for “The Very Thought Of You” and Thelonius Monk's “Blue Monk, ” among others. Marian hears Werner move effortlessly from piano to guitar, from song to song, and style to style, and remarks: “Your bag's just full of tricks, isn't it?”

“It was an especially fantastic treat to sing while Marian accompanied me on piano, ” says Susan, who taped the show in Manhattan. “Her great patience in playing each song, in telling its story, her inventiveness with chords and arrangements are all world class, so the whole experience was an education and a thrill.”

Susan now adds Piano Jazz to a burgeoning list of national TV and radio appearances (including NPR's Morning Edition and A&E's Breakfast with the Arts) in conjunction with the release of I Can't Be New, which debuted at #1 on Amazon.com and was named one of 2004's Top 10 albums by the Portland Oregonian. The New Yorker, New York Daily News, Village Voice, Boston Globe, Washington Post and LA Weekly also have praised I Can't Be New.

Her Carnegie Hall performance as part of Michael Feinstein's special tribute to Irving Berlin tops an ongoing list of the nation's most prominent festivals, clubs and concert stages Susan has played. Susan's upcoming dates include the Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA; the Portland Jazz Festival in Portland, OR; the Triple Door in Seattle and Joe's Pub in New York. Susan recently completed a West Coast tour of performing arts centers with multiple Grammy-winning contemporary bluesman Keb' Mo.

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