Bill Anschell

Bill Anschell (* in Seattle, Washington) is an American jazz pianist, composer, author and music producer.

Life and work

Bill Anschell grew up in the Seattle area, studied at Oberlin College and until 1982 at Wesleyan University, where he had composition lessons with Bill Barron and studied South Indian music with T. Ranganathan. Later he lived for three years in Madison, Wisconsin, where he worked with bassist Richard Davis. From 1989 to 2002 he worked in Atlanta as a band leader and coordinator of the Southern Arts Federation; next he performed with his trio in the southeastern United States. In 1995 he released his debut album, Rhythm Changes; In 2001 he was composer -in-residence of the American Composers Forum. Since 2002 he has been living in Seattle.

Throughout his career, Anschell worked with Lionel Hampton, Nnenna Freelon, Tierney Sutton, Russell Malone, Russell Gunn or Ron Carter. His compositions were used on Freelons Grammy -nominated album Shaking Free ( Concord Records) as well as on their CBS albums and Heritage lists. He also wrote music for the television series The West Wing, Damages, The Wire, as well as for the soundtrack of the PBS feature film Old Settler. Anschell is also the author of Jazz in the Concert Setting and Who Can I Turn To? . He was also the producer of the radio program Jazz South, which ran from 1992 to 2002.

Disco printing specifications

• Rhythm Changes ( Consolidated Artists, 1995)
• A Different Note All Together (Accurate Records, 1998)
• When Cooler Heads Prevail ( Summit Records, 2001)
• More to the Ear Than Meets the Eye ( Origin Records, 2006)
• We Could not Agree More ( 2009)