Jerry Lewis Telethon 2009:- For a septuagenarian musician about to play for the biggest audience of her life, Missoula jazz pianist Jodi Marshall seems to be taking events in her usual, relaxed stride.“I think it’ll just be fun, and it looks good on the resume anyway – now that I don’t need one,” quipped Marshall earlier this week, just before leaving town on a flight to Las Vegas, where she is set to perform on tonight’s nation-wide broadcast of the 2009 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.
Featuring a star-studded roster of performers that includes Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Tony Orlando, Three Dog Night, and others, this year’s telethon is expected to draw a television audience of more than 40 million viewers, according to the Web site of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Marshall is actually no stranger to big gigs. By the time she graduated from high school in Burbank, Calif., Marshall was already earning money as a studio player. Over the course of the ensuing 25 years, she cut demonstration records for Capitol Records and served as an on-call pianist for several major film studios. During the Korean War, she toured with the USO, entertaining troops overseas.
