Al Anderson
Artist. Reggae
- Active
- 1974-1981
- Sunrise
- October 11, 1952, New York City, New York
Albert Anderson is an American guitarist, the first non-Jamaican member of the Wailers and the player of the guitar solo on the live "No Woman No Cry."
He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, started on trombone, and moved to guitar and bass. He came to the Wailers through Paul Kossoff of Free, who was asked to play on a session, declined, and put Anderson forward in his place. He joined in 1974, at twenty-two, and played on Natty Dread and on Live!, recorded at the Lyceum in London in July 1975; the solo on that version of "No Woman No Cry" is his. He arrived as a jazz-rock player raised on George Benson, and he recalled that Marley wanted none of it, asking instead for more blues and a touch of salsa; he had to start over, playing much slower and with more feeling, and he took Wayne Perkins's solo on "Concrete Jungle" as his model for the sound. His own description of the "No Woman No Cry" solo is of a quiet one built around the song's chord changes. He also laid tracks in 1975 for what became Rastaman Vibration.
He left in 1976 to work with Peter Tosh in Word Sound and Power alongside Donald Kinsey, and rejoined the Wailers in 1978, overlapping with Junior Marvin on Survival, Uprising, and Babylon by Bus. He stayed with the Wailers Band after Marley's sunset and later formed the Original Wailers with Marvin, the two dividing the lead parts according to which of them had played on the original recording. He is the last surviving member of the band that made Natty Dread and Live!
Last updated November 1, 2026
Connections
- Junior Marvin (collaborator)
Notes
- "Bob Marley and the Wailers' Guitarist Al Anderson on the Night Paul Kossoff Gave Him His Big Break," Guitar World, August 2024, https://www.guitarworld.com/features/al-anderson-how-paul-kossoff-gave-him-break-with-bob-marley. Anderson's own account has Chris Blackwell phoning Kossoff for the session and Kossoff, unwilling to go, sending Anderson instead. Wikipedia gives a different route: an invitation from Chris Wood of Traffic that led to work for Island Records. "Al Anderson (musician)," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Anderson_(musician).
- "Al Anderson on the Night Paul Kossoff Gave Him His Big Break"; on the Lyceum recordings of July 17 and 18, 1975, see "Live! (Bob Marley and the Wailers album)," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live!_(Bob_Marley_and_the_Wailers_album).
- Andrew Daly, "Bob Marley Didn't Want to Hear My Jazz-Rock... I Had to Start All Over Again," Guitar World, December 21, 2023, https://www.guitarworld.com/features/al-anderson-bob-marley.
- The High Court found that he "joined the Wailers in late 1974" and "during 1975 he took part in the laying of the tracks for the album that became 'Rastaman Vibration'." His evidence on how the band worked: "Bob had the poetry, Aston and Carly had the music which with Bob's poetry and melodies created the Wailers' sound": Barrett v. Universal-Island Records Ltd. and Others, [2006] EWHC 1009 (Ch), May 15, 2006, https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2006/1009, para. 260.
- Joel Francis, "Original Wailers Keep Promise to Bob Marley," Kansas City Star, March 26, 2010, reposted at https://joelfrancis.com/2010/03/26/org-wailers/; "Al Anderson (musician)," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Anderson_(musician). Barrow and Dalton note Anderson as lead guitarist on Tosh's 1978 One Love Peace Concert set. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 143.
- Francis, "Original Wailers Keep Promise"; "List of Bob Marley and the Wailers Band Members," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bob_Marley_and_the_Wailers_band_members.
- Francis, "Original Wailers Keep Promise", which reports that each guitarist plays lead on the material where he originally appeared.
