jay anderson

Jay Anderson provided bass for Frank Zappa's "Thing-Fish" album. He can also be heard on the 1984 re-release (overdubs) of "Cruising With Ruben & The Jets", and probably also on "The Man From Utopia" remix.

	1978 herman, woody- la fiesta
	1980 hino, terumasa- live in warsaw
	1981 sullivan, ira- ira sullivan does it all
	1981 mcrae, carmen- live at bubba's
	1982 rodney, red- sprint
36	frank zappa: the man from utopia (1983, lp, usa, barking pumpkin)
	the mothers of invention: cruising with ruben & the jets (5) (-) - bass overdubs on the 1984 re-release
41	frank zappa: thing-fish (1984, 3lp, usa, barking pumpkin)
	1985 mintzer, bob- first decade
	1986 akiyoshi, toshiko- wishing peace
	1986 rodney, red- no turn on red
	1986 wallace, bennie- brilliant corners
	1987 waits, tom- frank's wild years
	1988 denon jazz sampler, vol. 3
	1988 dial, garry- dial & oates (acoustic bass)
	1988 spies- by way of the world (arranger, keyboards, computers/sound tracks, acoustic bass)
	1988 kelly, julie- some other time
	1988 rodney, red- one for bird
	1988 rodney, red- red snapper
	1989 weiskopf, walt- exact science
	1989 code red- code red
	1989 belden, bob- treasure island
	1989 bernhardt, warren- heat of the moment (acoustic bass)
	1989 belden, bob- straight to my heart: the music of
	1990 campbell, john- turning point
	1990 brecker, michael- now you see it...now you don't
	1990 watkins, mitch- curves
	1990 bernhardt, warren- ain't life grand (bass, piano)
	1991 bernhardt, warren- reflections (acoustic bass)
	1991 calderazzo, joey- in the door
	1991 schaefer, hal- solo, duo, trio
	1991 dial & oatts- brassworks (acoustic bass)
	1991 stryker, dave- passage
	1992 cooley live- livewire (background vocals)
	1992 jay anderson- next exit
	1992 wall, jeremy- stepping to the new world
	1992 stern, mike- standards (and other songs) (acoustic bass)
	1992 samples- underwater people (engineer, mixing)
	1992 rodney, red- then and now
	1992 schneider, maria- evanescence
	1993 dial & oatts- dial & oatts play cole porter
	1993 rogers, billy- guitar artistry of billy
	1993 okoshi, tiger- echoes of a note (a tribute to louis (bass, acoustic bass)
	1993 delano, peter- peter delano
	1993 jamal ski- roughneck reality
	1993 vitro, roseanna- softly
	1993 sara k.- play on words
	1993 arriale, lynne- eyes have it (bass, acoustic bass)
	1993 cables, george- i mean you
	1993 mintzer, bob- only in new york
	1993 bley, paul- if we may
	1994 salvatore, sergio- tune up
	1994 perry, rich- beautiful love
	1994 davis, michael- midnight crossing (bass, acoustic bass)
	1994 belden, bob- shades of blue
	1994 jay anderson- local color
	1994 best of chesky jazz & classics, vol
	1995 bley, paul- speachless
	1995 hart, john- high drama
	1995 sample, joe- old places, old faces
	1995 mintzer, bob- big band trane
	1995 perry, rich- what is this?
	1995 chesky woodwinds collection
	1995 collection, vol. 1
	1995 lamb, chuck- as above so below (acoustic bass)
	1996 brisker, gordon- gift
	1996 stryker, dave- blue to the bone
	1996 dion, celine- falling into you (acoustic bass)
	1996 juris, vic- pastels
	1996 bley, paul- reality check
	1996 cables, george- skylark
	1996 rodney, red- tivoli sessions
	1996 juris, vic- moonscape
	1997 burner- burner
	1997 wilson, glenn- porpoise avenue
	1997 ferre brothers- new york
	1997 sample, joe- sample this
	1997 cables, george- dark side, light side
	1997 konitz, lee- dearly beloved
	1997 smith, louis- there goes my heart
	1997 best of smooth jazz
	1997 perry, rich- left alone
	1997 konitz, lee- out of nowhere
	1998 sample, joe- best of joe sample
	1998 blue box, vol. 2: finest jazz vocal
	1998 jvc xrcd, vol. 2 sampler
	1998 okoshi, tiger- color of soil
	1998 mintzer, bob- quality time
	1998 greenfield, haze- jazz-a-ma-tazz

From: Patrick Neve
Jay played bass on Thing Fish... "Briefcase Boogie" to be sure, though I'm not sure which others. He also did bass overdubs on the 1984 remix of Cruising with Ruben and the Jets. He has last been seen playing a gig at the Blue Note in NYC with the Steve Slagle Quintet (12/13/99).

From: Downbeat
Bassist/composer Jay Anderson takes center stage on his debut recording Next Exit with Randy Brecker on trumpet & flugelhorn, Billy Drewes on reeds, drummer Jeff Hirshfield, guitarist Wayne Krantz & keyboardist Dave Witham. Local Color also explores post-bop modern jazz with special guest Toots Thielemans. "Anderson's versatile, fixed ensemble quickly stakes out a sound and then navigates multiple variations thereof. This is a bona fide band of considerable breadth.

Hi, just letting you know that in the Jay Anderson discography, the Jay Anderson doing the photographs (the Ruby Braff listing) is Jay Anderson the jazz photographer, and he's not the same guy as the bass player.

During "Briefcase Boogie," right after Thing Fish says "Sister Obdewllla?!" a trumpet or something in the background plays what sounds like the trombone lick in "Debra Kadabra" that makes fun of that movie. it repeats the lick more than once, and sounds very similar, but not exactly like the "Kadabra" one - is this intentional, you think?

That would be Jay Anderson bowing an upright bass. You can hear him plucking it earlier in the song. Gosh it sure sounds more like a cello to me.. he must be playing the highest registers of the instrument. Thanks for pointing out that part of the song.. I hadn't heard it this closely before, and I think there's some interesting interplay between the upright bass, vocals, electric bass and drums. It starts off with Jay playing along to Chad and the electric bass player (who is that? Barrow? Thunes?) ... and later during the section you describe (:53) the bowed instrument is presumably playing the part of Sister Obdwella X.
(Is that a correct assumption?)

As far as the "Brainiac quote", I'd say it was unintentional, but who knows. Probably Jay knows. Sounds like it's about 4 of the 5 correct notes, and it might even be in the same key, but I haven't checked that out. My hunch is that if Frank had wanted that line to be quoted he would have made it a wee bit more obvious.. most of that album kind of hits you over the head. So that would leave the options that (A) Jay quoted the Brainiac of his own accord on the spot, or (B) it was just an improvised moment of shmaltz that ended up sounding alike.

I do not play upright acoustic bass! That is someone else on Ruben. Maybe Jay Anderson (string bass on Thingfish)? I'm not sure, but I think it was Jay.

The reality is that my involvement w/Zappa was 1 day of work, but what an interesting day it was.

Chad Wackerman was an old friend of mine. Frank asked if he could recommend and acoustic bassist. I was the guy. My schedule was nuts because I was permanently moving to NYC the day after the session....in fact I had to borrow a bass because mine was already in NY.

To be honest, I wasn't that familiar with Zappa's work. I knew that he was an amazing musician and looked forward to working with him. He had evidently just gotten the rights to some of his older music back from WB(?) in a lawsuit that he won. (you probably know more about it than me)

I was the only person at the session.....aside from Frank and the engineer. I was there for about 12 hours. I don't know if Zappa even knew what was going to be what. He just wanted to get as much out of me in those 12 hours as he could....I was happy to oblige. I had heard about the difficulty of his music, so I was a little apprehensive about the task that lay ahead of me. Oddly enough, I didn't read one note of music.

Some of the work was replacing the bass parts on some old M.O.I. stuff. We would listen together...he'd ask my opinion, I'd transcribe the tune & bass parts and go. We probably did 8-10 tunes like that. The rest was just improvising over pre-existing live tapes and some studio stuff.

I remember at one point he said " wait 'till you hear the guy throw-up then pull out your bow and make it sound like rats running across the floor". This gives you an idea of what the session was into. It was a lot of fun.

He was very respectful, wanted my input, and was great to work with. I remember he wanted me to hear some other things he was working on. We spent an hour listening to guitar transcriptions that Steve Vai (?) had done of Franks vocal improvs. Amazing!

I don't know if Frank knew the music was going to be Thing Fish or not. Believe it or not I've never heard it! (or any of the other stuff I did) Chad told me that the stuff I did could be on many CDs, I have no idea.