Anthony Jackson

GRP was a label, Dave Crewson and Larry Rose in productions.

And they had these records and it would be like special effects featuring, you know, Will Lee, Anthony Jackson, Steve Gadd, Steve Jordan, this guy, you know, like a hundred different guys on there.

Carlos Vega, I believe.

Yeah, all those kind of guys.

Michael Urbaniak, a Polish violinist, actually also played saxophone.

But one of the classic fusion records, it's called Fusion III, and Urbaniak, and it's Steve Gann and Anthony Jackson are in the rhythm section.

Oh, there you go.

And so I forget exactly how we met, but I was, okay, we can play in seven, we can play in nine, I can play in nine, whatever.

So they got entire full bands of famous studio musicians.

I think Anthony Jackson was on bass for one of them and several of their names went through.

But they...

They intentionally killed everybody else's part.

From 1974, that was the OJs.

And for the love of money, that unforgettable bass line belongs to one of the three songwriters, Anthony Jackson.

And it takes our discussion of fair compensation into murkier waters of greed.

Now, before that, we heard the Staples singers going back to the late 1960s.

He led his group, The Decoding Society, and he was also the only percussionist to record with Albert Ehler, Cecil Taylor, and Ornette Coleman.

Anthony Jackson passed away in 2025 at the age of 73 on Staten Island, New York following a battle with Parkinson's disease and many strokes unfortunately.

He was an iconic session bassist who recorded on over 500 studio albums.

He also co-invented the modern six-string contrabass guitar, and he also played the iconic opening bass riff on the OJ's 1973 hit For the Love of Money.

[laughs]

And, uh, For the Love of Money, uh, I think, um, Oboe, who played the bass on that one, uh, wasn't he Anthony Jackson? Uh, he just passed away recently.

Uh, well, he passed away this year, I think.

Number 11, TLC.

No. No.

Wow.

Uh, and Anthony Jackson passed away on October, October of last year, October 19.

So it was, it was almost a year ago.

And listen to that production.

Jeff Porcaro, Randy Brecker, Anthony Jackson, and a ridiculous collection of studio royalty.

Here is Donald Fagen, IGY, vinyl on chrome.

Standing tough under stars and stripes, we can tell this dream's in sight.

And basically- I think maybe Gil might have read the poem to them one time, and Ron Carter just takes off.

He just takes off with this vamp that's as recognizable now as Anthony Jackson's bass line on For the Love of Money.

Iconic.

And that was it.