In his newest column, Mr. P.C., the jazz advice columnist, tackles the controversial issue of jazz as a disappearing resource. In answer to a question, he offers possible solutions, including this one:
But conservation alone won’t be enough; we must turn to alternative, renewable sources of jazz. These, of course, are colleges and conservatories, which efficiently convert tuition dollars into vast numbers of jazz performers and composers able to crank out low-grade jazz in tremendous quantity. There’s no end to the number of programs our planet can accommodate, and no limit to the number of notes their graduates will produce.
To explore the problem further with Mr. P.C., you can find him on All About Jazz, but if you go to his Facebook page, you get the bonus of a realistic drawing of him consulting a troubled musician. In the column he also addresses a drummer’s counting habit and the dilemma of a musician’s wife looking for a way to communicate with her husband.
We have it on reasonably good authority that under the name Bill Anschell, Mr. P.C. moonlights as a pianist. You may see a resemblance to the man in the drawing. Here, soprano saxophonist Brent Jensen accompanies Anschell, and vice versa.
For an account of a previous Anschell-Jensen encounter, go here.