Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Bill Anschell: Figments

353

Bill Anschell: Figments

Bill Anschell: Figments
Bill Anschell is a lot of things. He is house pianist and mainstay at Origin Arts, showing up on a wide range of projects. He also contributes to this publication, writing with grace on craft of jazz. But, late at night, he is a musical James Joyce, spinning musical thread off the top of his head. And so he does on Figments.

Recorded over a series of late nights, after practicing his chosen craft, Anschell clears his mind and...begins to fool around, but Anschell's "fooling around" amounts to a postmodern study of American music. When recording "What's Going On," Marvin Gaye recorded saxophonist Eli Fontaine while he was warming up. Gaye used some of this "warming up" to introduce the now famous social anthem. When Fontaine heard it, he tried telling Gaye that he was "just goofing." Gaye told him "you goofed off exquisitely." Bill Anschell, too, goofs off exquisitely.

His subjects or "Figments" range from his deconstructed "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" to a rollicking stride-piano rendering of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant." Anschell sits down, stream-of-conscious, and plays what first comes into his head, modulating his message in real time, allowing whim and fancy to inform his direction. And those directions are many from the heroin-loaded Bill Evans' introspection of "All My Tomorrows" to a celestial brush with the Eagles' "Desparado."

Anschell goes all John Cage with a delightful prepared piano reading of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi," easily the most inventive of his ruminations. Blood, Sweat and Tears' "Spinning Wheel" recalls a Dave Frank left hand, while the standard "Willow Weep for Me" is a fragmented Monkian dream given leave to the muses of the wind.

Anschell hits a walk off grand-slam with Figments. After his collaboration with saxophonist Brent Jensen on We Couldn't Agree More (Origin Records, 2009), we should have expected it.

Track Listing

My Heart Belongs to Daddy; All My Tomorrows; Alice's Restaurant; Big Yellow Taxi; It Never Entered My Mind; Willow Weep for Me; Spinning Wheel; Across the Universe; Honeysuckle Rose; Desperado; I'm Getting Sentimental Over You; Ask Me Why.

Personnel

Bill Anschell: piano, prepared piano (4).

Album information

Title: Figments | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Origin Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Bill Anschell Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.