Playing with Sandra McCracken in Kansas City, MO, August 2020.

Jay Foote plays electric, acoustic, and synth basses and is known for vocal harmonies. Foote played with many of New York, Nashville, and LA’s finest songwriters. In the last fifteen years, he has performed with Anthony da Costa, Madison Cunningham, A Great Big World, Sufjan Stevens, The Lone Bellow, Peter Bradley Adams, Lera Lynn, Scott Metzer’s Wolf!, and Diane Birch.

Foote has helped produce ten albums in the last 6 years, including albums for Austin Plaine, Anthony da Costa, Sandra McCracken, Jaymay, and Andrew Rose Gregory.

In New York City, he played upright, electric, and synth bass on Broadway for award-winning shows for “Hamilton,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Band’s Visit,” “Tootsie,” “Amelie,” “Mean Girls,” and Sara Bareilles’s “Waitress.” He also performed with the touring companies of “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”

National television appearances include The Late Show with David Letterman, Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Conan (TBS), Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen, NBC’s Today Show, CBS This Morning, CBS Saturday Morning, Carson Daly Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Artie Lang Show, and VH1’s Big Morning Buzz.

Other broadcast performances include nationally televised shows in Canada, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Yemen. Foote has performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, Fuji Rock Festival (Japan), Greenbelt Festival (UK), SingFest (Singapore), Jisan Valley Rock Festival (South Korea), and the Montreal Jazz Festival. He has played the historic Ryman Theater (Nashville), Budokan (Tokyo), Central Park Summer Stage (NYC), Massey Hall (Toronto), Kennedy Center (DC), and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble (Woodstock, NY). He performed with Bee Caves and Diane Birch for Daytrotter, and the NPR program Soundcheck with Sophie Auster and Laura Gibson, Mountain Stage with Diane Birch, World Cafe Live with Madison Cunningham, Diane Birch, Greg Holden, Jamie McLean, and Matt Bauer, and Paste Magazine performances with Anthony da Costa and Austin Plaine.

His acoustic bass playing is featured supporting Jaymay in the feature films “Happythankyoumoreplease,” “A Good Marriage,” and behind Ambrosia Parsley in the Grammy-nominated “Silver Linings Playbook.” You can also hear his bass playing every morning on the “CBS This Morning” theme song.

Foote has two instrumental music records out under his own name. In 2006, Budd Kopman from allaboutjazz.com named “UBUNTU!” one of the year's best instrumental jazz records.

Foote is a member of the Local 802 NYC Musicians Union and a charter member of the NYC chapter of the Jim Keltner Fan Club. He is an AmSAT-certified Alexander Technique teacher in Des Moines, Iowa, and New York City and is a Senior Assistant trainer on the Balance Arts Center AT Teacher Training Course. He served on the AmSAT Board of Directors from 2018-2020. Degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Northern Iowa and Masters in Music in Jazz Performance from William Paterson University.

He endorses Aguilar Amplifiers.