Bill Anschell: Benched

Benched
Bill Anschell
158 Pages
ISBN: # 9798270830021
Blow Hard Music
2025

Bill Anschell is a Seattle-based pianist that has been the recipient of national acclaim for his work as a leader and sideman in jazz. He has released eleven albums as a leader or co-leader on the Origin Records label, and appeared on many more. From 1989-2002 he resided in Atlanta, where he took on a syndicated radio program, JazzSouth among other projects. His music education took him from Oberlin to Wesleyan, along the way studying South Indian rhythmic theory with T. Ranganathan. He worked with Richard Davis for a while in Madison, WI, and served as pianist / music director for award-winning vocalist Nnenna Freelon. His compositions have been heard on a variety of TV and film projects. Since returning to his native Seattle, he has settled in as a major force on the jazz scene there, forming a variety of combos, including a standards trio with bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer D'Vonne Lewis. With the trio, his prowess as an improviser rises to the surface, putting aside his formal compositional skills for those of a more spontaneous nature.

All this being said, the bottom line here is that Anschell has lived the jazz life, with all of its highs and lows, its satisfactions and frustrations. It puts him in a position and gives him a unique perspective to indulge in another of his many talents—as a jazz humorist, and a satirical one at that.

Anschell's satirical pieces have struck a major chord on the internet, with his article Careers in Jazz topping 300,000 reads at All About Jazz—the website's all-time most read piece. In 2014 he was a recipient of the inaugural Paul Desmond Award, allaboutjazz.com's recognition of the funniest jazz artist of the year.

It came as no surprise then, when Anschell decided to put together the variant pieces of his persona as a humorist, and deposit them in one place—a book that visits all of his work over a long and diverse career in the very music he chooses to jab and poke at with a satirical point of view. Benched is just that, a voluminous assortment of his work all presented with a less-than-sardonic attitude. Anschell's humor may lean heavily on the irony of being an artist that must commodify that which cannot be commodified to etch out a living—all in an environment that doesn't always appreciate the very real drive for excellence that accompanies the motivation of a serious jazz musician. The ironic aspects of Anschell's humor would be lost if not interfaced with the pianist's exceptional virtuosity as a jazz pianist and his vast accomplishments in the field. Pieces of Anschell's columns, along with eight stories are presented chapter by chapter, in an entertaining read for anyone who has been touched by jazz music and the culture that surrounds it.

Anschell begins with a chapter titled "Jazz Math," a series of equations that reveal truisms on the bandstand. For example—1 up-tempo tune + 1 rushing drummer + x double lattes consumed by the drummer = x number of fights among the horn players to solo first. A guide to jam sessions for beginners, and a variety of seemingly fictional tales follows, with the caveat that these tales are actually things that the pianist experienced for real on his journey as a professional jazz musician.

The book is interlaced with portions of Anschell's acclaimed All About Jazz column, Mr. PC's Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum. The format presents questions allegedly submitted for advice from the jazz public, and answered by Mr. PC, aka, Bill Anschell. One such inquiry from "Duane in Detroit" ponders the question of whether suffering in life can make one's music more soulful, to which PC responds that it depends on whether the pain can be controlled by over-the-counter medications.

Anschell takes on gross generalizations about musicians, including the swagger of trumpet players, the over indulgence of saxophonists at jam sessions and the insecurities of jazz guitarists who deep inside want to be rock stars. Through it all, the humor is sharp, witty, intelligent and presented positively in an odd sort of way. It takes to task the eccentricities in the jazz world and through humor, somehow cobbles out a keen sense of understanding about the dilemmas faced in the profession. After all, music is a sacred thing, and the ins and outs of trying to commodify it can be at times be maddening. Anschell successfully flips the script on this, and applies the emotional salve of humor to make sense of it all.

The actual reading of the book falls into the same category as Bill Crow's classic book, Jazz Anecdotes. It is best consumed piece by piece, leaving enough time between chapters to digest the content and have a good chuckle. Like Crow's book, it may be the perfect travel companion for any jazz fan. Who can actually grasp the irony of Anschell's assertions outside of the musicians themselves would be the one question that comes to mind. The truth is that anyone close to the music, as a musician, producer, writer or simply as a supporter of jazz, can latch onto Anschell's satire. His views exposed by his humor are neither sardonic or cynical as one might surmise. He pokes fun at the absurdity of everyday life, something applicable in the hum-drum reality of any profession—and does it with intelligence and grace. It's all good humor folks, and should be received as such. In the end, Benched is just plain fun, and don't we all need a little bit more of that in 2026?

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