JAY ANDERSON
Jay
Anderson is an American jazz double-bassist and studio musician. Since 1978, he
has worked with a wide range of jazz (and non-Jazz) artists, including Woody
Herman, the Brecker Brothers, Toots Thielemans, Kenny Wheeler, Joe Sample, Mike
Stern, Chaka Khan, Michel Legrand, Paul Bley, Tom Waits, Dr. John, Ernie Watts,
David Bowie, Allen Ginsberg and Celine Dion. He can be heard on over 400
recordings, seven of which have received a Grammy. Jay currently co-leads the
group BANN, featuring Israeli jazz guitarist Oz Noy (who has worked with
Dweezil).
It always annoys me when people talk
about the 1984 remix version of Cruising
With Ruben & The Jets and talk solely of Chad Wackerman and Arthur
Barrow’s overdubs: Jay also made a significant contribution to this alternate
version of the album! I thought I would attempt to redress the balance by
asking him a few questions.
Were you
aware of Frank’s music before you recorded for him?
Minimally. I
had heard some of his music over the years. Didn’t own any recordings.
I understand
Chad Wackerman recommended you to Frank – how did you know Chad?
We lived in
the same area. I had known Chad literally since he was a child. He was a child
prodigy. His father[i]
was an
infamous jazz educator. His brothers[ii]
were all
musically gifted. I’m a bit older than Chad. When I first started going on the
road, Chad sub-let my apartment.
Did FZ
simply accept Chad’s judgement or did you have to audition for him?
Chad asked me if I’d do it. I was into it. There was a slight problem. I was
moving to NYC the next day. My bass and stuff was already in NYC. I borrowed a
bass from a friend. We recorded one day at Frank’s home in LA. Chad told me his
address and the time. No communication with Frank until I met him that day.
Did you work
in isolation at the UMRK, or alongside other musicians?
Just Frank,
his engineer and me.
What
instructions or guidance did he give you?
Just verbal
instructions like, “when you hear the guy
vomit, take your bow and make it sound like rats running across the floor”!
On the old Mother’s stuff, I sat and
transcribed the old electric bass parts. I’d use that as a starting point…one
tune at a time. He wanted the sound of acoustic bass on those tunes.
Which came
first: work on Thing-Fish, or the Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, Lumpy Gravy, Man From Utopia overdubs?
As I
mentioned, it was all done in one long 12 hour day, just the three of us. I
didn’t read one note of music.
I was nervous because his writing was
infamously difficult. It was all verbal, impressionistic, humourous
instruction. He really let me do everything as I felt it. He was totally
supportive, enthusiastic and cool. I added acoustic bass to some things (ie.
what eventually was Thing-Fish[iii]). I put
bass on maybe 20 tunes that day. It wasn’t until years later that I found out
what recordings they were released on. I got the CDs about five years ago. I
ordered them from an oddball used record store in upstate NY. That was the
first time I had heard any of the music we recorded that day in, I think, 1982.
Do you know
on which tracks you added string bass to on the CD version of The Man From Utopia?
No idea.[iv]
Do you know
if you recorded anything else for Frank that has yet to be released?
I don’t know
if everything we did was released.
When did you
last speak to FZ?
That day.
It was an incredible one for me:
Frank was down-to-earth, fun and respectful. I was 26 years old. I had a ball
and only great memories of that day.
***
Photo of Jay
liberated with permission from his website at www.jayandersonbass.com