On Tuesday night, as the A train rumbled through the Columbus Circle station, it was also roaring six stories up, as pianist Marian McPartland launched her weeklong 87th birthday celebration at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. Or to be more precise, it was waltzing.

“Take the ‘A’ Train” was Billy Strayhorn’s best-known fast, jam-session vehicle. After Strayhorn died, however, Duke Ellington introduced a new piano arrangement, in which he reinterpreted “‘A’ Train” in a gently swinging 3/4. Ms. McPartland, playing her own variation on the variation, starting with a pointillistic introduction that reconstructed Strayhorn’s bridge.

She rhapsodized with lush chords and a drop or two of “Rain check” and “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” as well as brief exchanges with bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Glenn Davis. Then, saying she “might as well stick with Duke Ellington,” treated us to “Prelude to a Kiss,” starting the melody in rubato with the rest of the trio coming in at the bridge.

Then she quipped: “That was brought to you courtesy of the Arthritis Foundation.”

Ms. McPartland, one of the all-time great ladies of jazz, is first and foremost a brilliant pianist. Along with her younger colleague, Barbara Carroll, she was one of the first female pianists to master the intricacies of bebop. Both are masters of the most heartstoppingly beautiful romantic harmonies I’ve ever heard. But for the last 27 years, Ms. McPartland’s piano skills and her British accent have hosted jazz’s greatest talk show, National Public Radio’s “Piano Jazz.”

Arthritis has slowed her down a tiny bit: She doesn’t play staggeringly fast runs of chords upon chords upon chords. Still, she makes every note – and, more importantly, every chord – mean something. She plays a wicked blues too: such as Oscar Pettiford’s “Bohemia After Dark” which she learned from the composer himself, when he used to sit in with her trio at the old Hickory House.

At some point during this blues-with a-bridge, another bop anthem, Tadd Dameron’s “Hot House” must have entered Ms. McPartland’s mind. It returned in various guises throughout the rest of the set, played up and down, inverted and reverted, but always recognizable. After Ivan Lins’s “Velas” and “A Grand Night for Swinging” (composed by Dr. Billy Taylor, another 52nd Street bop piano star who is now well into his ninth decade), it was guest-star time.

Tuesday’s visitor was the fine tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane – who, along with Ms. Carroll and Mr. Taylor, is one of the dozens of guests on Concord’s newly released double CD of Ms. McPartland’s 85th birthday celebration (CCD2-2218).

The encounter was impromptu; the two hadn’t even discussed tunes or keys beforehand. He called three standards: “Autumn Leaves,” “We’ll Be Together Again” and “If I Should Lose You.” She didn’t try to keep up with his pace, but instead laid down a perfect foundation, knowing exactly what notes to play while he double- and quadruple-timed around her. She soloed in octaves and closed the proceedings with a very ominous, oriental chord – I think I’ll have to come back later in the week to hear its resolution.

Until May 8 (Broadway at 60th Street , 212-721-6500).