Now available: Benched, my debut book of jazz humor, in paperback and ePub on Amazon and IngramSpark (paperback only). This is many years in the making, and includes great illustrations (like the ones on this page) by Deb Choat (aka, my wife).

Benched features eight stories—all updated, expanded, and improved—plus the very best installments from 16 years of Mr. P.C.’s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum, a popular jazz advice column. Mr. P.C.’s identity was previously unknown, and I’m shocked to learn that it was me all along.

You can get a taste of the stories below, but these are just shortened teasers. And, as always, if you’d like P.C.’s column delivered straight to your inbox or have questions for him, send an email to pcjazz1@gmail.com.

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Stories included in Benched : 
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Casuals, club dates, general business gigs, jobbing... different names for the private parties many jazz musicians play to support themselves. No matter what they're called, they can be nights of sheer hell or--depending on your outlook--dark comedy. One such night is the setting for The Weakened Worriers, my latest epic tell-all. Almost all of the events depicted happened to me or to friends of mine, truth once again being stranger than fiction.

Jazz Jam Sessions:  A First-Timer’s Guide became an internet phenomenon shortly after I first published it. An anonymous disgruntled third party (initial profiling suggests a guitarist or vocalist) removed my byline, excerpted Section 2 (“The Musicians”), retitled it "How Jazz Works," and cast it into the cyberworld, launching an international tidal wave of "forward"s and "cc"s.  Since then it’s been read by thousands of jazz musicians, though few have any idea who wrote it.  It’s also currently posted on many jazz websites (Google “How Jazz Works” to get a sampling. . . ), including sites where it has been translated into French, Japanese, and Greek.  Read it here, as the author intended, unedited and with no overdubs.

For a reasoned, logical analysis of the unreasonable and illogical jazz world, check out Jazz Math. 

People who enjoy--or can even tolerate--listening to jazz are outnumbered by the musicians who want to play it. For that reason, less than 1% of jazz artists are able to support themselves playing the music they love. How do the rest survive? That, and much more, in Careers in Jazz, a story that's generated unanticipated controversy.  Humorous or slanderous? You decide; thick skin required. It's one of the all-time most-read stories, with more than 750,000 reads, on allaboutjazz.com, the leading jazz website. It's been posted on countless other jazz sites and gone explosively viral via email. And it was the centerpiece of a story that the Wall Street Journal ran both online and in print; the Journal wrote that Careers in Jazz "is being passed among economist-bloggers as a comic case study in market dysfunction."

Interested in the exciting world of jazz journalism? Spend just a few minutes reading How to Be a Jazz Critic, and you’ll write exactly like the pros!

Experience the glamorous world of regional jazz nightclubs--five-star accommodations, complimentary gourmet meals, crystalline acoustics, state-of-the-art pianos, enthralled audiences, and virtuous clubowners–in Searching for Glory at the Syncopated Cellar.

 

And for an inside look at the death-defying life of a staff musician aboard the S.S. Norway, check out There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute.