Vijay Anderson is a freelance drummer, bandleader, composer, and teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. As a bandleader, he has led several ensembles and released five albums under his own name. As a sideman, Anderson has played with numerous bandleaders and appears on over 30 independent releases. Anderson has played everything from street corners and local bars, to major Jazz festivals and international tours. He holds an MFA in music performance from Mills College and a BA in music performance from San Francisco State University. Anderson continues working on creative music and performs in various ensembles in Brooklyn and beyond.

Vijay Anderson is a freelance drummer, bandleader, composer, and teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. As a bandleader/composer Anderson has led three different sextets, as well as his quartet which played covers. His groups, Hard Boiled Wonderland and The Touch and Go Sextet featured stalwarts of the San Francisco Bay Area creative music scene. Anderson's group The Silverscreen Sextet featured legends of the Los Angeles underground music community playing his original music to the live projections of visual artist Tim Hicks. His group, The Vijay Anderson Quartet, worked from 2004-2018, playing the music of great American composers. Recently a trio recording under his name was released featuring Adam Lane and Ben Goldberg.

As a sideman, Anderson worked with the following groups:

Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra (west coast version)

Adam Lane's Blue Spirit Band (featuring Avram Fefer and Roy Campbell)

Adam Lane Trio (featuring Vinny Golia, Darius Jones, and Nick Lyons, respectively.)

Hafez Modirzadeh's Love and Respect Sextet

Hafez Modirzadeh/Bobby Bradford Quartet featuring Roberto Miranda

Collective quartet with Hafez Modirzadeh, Mark Dresser, and Diane Moser

Sheldon Brown's Distant Intervals

Sheldon Brown's Blood of the Air

Goldberg Brown Anderson

Marco Eneidi's Shattered Trio

Lisa Mezzacappa's Bait and Switch

Bill Horvitz's Expanded Band

Jayn Pettingill’s Kaijuscope

Smith Dobson V Quartet

Don Chapman's Open Mind

Graham Connah Large Ensemble

Aaron Bennett's Gogo-Fightmaster

Baculum

BJ Papa Band featuring Bishop Norman Williams

Jeff Chan Trio

Lynn Johnston Ensemble

Some additional career highlights are performing with diverse, ground breaking musicians such as John Tchicai, Garrison Fewell, Wadada Leo Smith, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Daniel Carter, Connie Crothers, Virg Dzurinko, Paul Smoker, Ken Filiano, Herb Robertson, Ken Wessel, Joel Forrester, Philip Johnston, Prasant Radhakrishnan, Steve Adams, Stephen Gauci, Mike Watt, Chuck Dukowski, and Slovenly Jr.(subbing for Rob Holzman).

Anderson has played everything from street corners and local bars, to major festivals and international tours.

Some venues include:

Yoshi’s

The World Stage

The Blue Whale

The Stone

Cafe Claude

The Luggage Store

The center for New Music

Headlands Center For the Arts

Yerba Buena Art Center

The de Young Museum

DOM - Moscow

Dizzy's Jazz Club - San Diego

Some Festivals and Tours Include:

North Beach Jazz Festival 2005 - with the BJ Papa band

East Coast Tour 2005 with Adam Lane and Vinny Golia

Monterey Jazz Festival 2007/2010 with Smith Dobson V/ Lisa Mezzacappa

Cimpfest 2011 -Villach, Austria - in the groups of Avram Fefer/ Adam Lane / Ken Filiano

The Novara Jazz Festival 2012 - Novara Italy - leading the Touch and Go Sextet

The VDU JAZZ Jungty’s Festival 2013 - Kaunas Lithuania - with Adam Lane trio featuring Vinny Golia

San Francisco Jazz Festival 2014 - with Sheldon Brown’s Blood of the Air

Outsound New Music 2016/2017 - Vinny Golia Trio/ Sheldon Brown

Forward Festival 2016 - with Adam Lane and Darius Jones

Tour of Russian Federation 2017- with Adam Lane and Nick Lyons

Angel City Jazz Festival 2018 - Los Angeles - leading the Silverscreen Sextet

Anderson holds an MFA in music performance from Mills College and a BA in music performance from San Francisco State University. At SF State, he was fortunate enough to study drums with jazz great Eddie Marshall. At Mills, Anderson studied composition, and improvisation with Roscoe Mitchell, music theory with David Bernstein, and percussion with William Winant.

Anderson’s recorded work can be heard on over 35 independent releases. His work can be found on the following labels: No Business Records, Asian Improv Records, Ninewinds, Clean Feed, Nottwo, Gauci Music, Edgetone, CIMP, Cadence and Minus Zero Records. Anderson continues to work on creative music and performs in various ensembles in Brooklyn and beyond.