Bill Anschell: unearthing jazz's improbable solutions

'The hardest working piano man in Seattle' talks about the state of jazz music, his prog-rock influences, and the tasteful fusion of electronics on his latest album.

Today, the Spotlight shines On Seattle pianist and composer Bill Anschell.

We’ve had award winners of all types on the podcast, but as far as I can remember, Bill is the first to have won an award for humor: in 2014, Bill was the winner of the inaugural Paul Desmond Award, the website All About Jazz’s celebration of the funniest jazz artists. We get to that and his satirical essay, “Careers in Jazz,” which is the all-time most-read piece on All About Jazz.

As a much younger man, Bill left Seattle to study at Oberlin College and Wesleyan University. At Wesleyan, he worked with saxophone great Bill Barron and South Indian mridangam master T Ranganathan, developing an affinity for diverse and interesting rhythms that can be heard throughout his work.

In Atlanta, Bill served as Jazz Coordinator for the Southern Arts Federation, the South’s regional arts agency. While building their jazz program, Bill made time to publish a book on grant writing and created JazzSouth, a syndicated radio show heard on more than 200 stations around the world. He also worked as a sideman around town and led his own trio. Bill is a celebrated composer, and his tunes have been heard in shows like The West Wing, NCIS: LA, The Wire, and Yellowstone.

Our talk touched on the evolution of jazz, the impact and legacy of fusion music, the integration of electronic music into jazz, Bill’s time in Atlanta, his potential upcoming projects, and more.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Bill Anschell’s album Improbable Solutions)

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Dig Deeper

• Visit Bill Anschell at billanschell.com
• Purchase Bill Anschell's Improbable Solutions from billanschell.com or Qobuz, and listen to it on your streaming platform of choice
• Follow Bill Anschell on Instagram and Facebook
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