Al Foster
Posted on 05/29/2025 3:18:56 PM PDT by real saxophonist
In Memoriam: Al Foster, 1943–2025
By Michael J. West
May. 29, 2025
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28 in New York City. He was 82.
His death was announced by his daughter, Kierra Denise Foster Ba, in a post on Facebook. Cause of death was not disclosed.
Active in jazz since the mid-1960s, Foster was nonetheless probably best known for his on-and-off collaboration with Miles Davis in the ’70s and ’80s. Foster was the only musician to work with Davis both before and after the trumpeter’s late-’70s retirement, thus working across two distinct flavors of electric jazz. Yet Foster was also a prolific partner to (among others) saxophonists Blue Mitchell, Joe Henderson, Jimmy Heath, and Sonny Rollins, all of whom were exemplars of acoustic straightahead jazz.
In all contexts and styles, he retained a signature sound, one of in-the-pocket groove and an unusually prominent hi-hat in his comping patterns. (Foster also famously kept the hi-hat in a default closed position, opening it when sounding on the cymbal pair: a technique he called “reverse hi-hat.”)
Foster was deeply versed in the history of jazz drums — citing in particular the influences of Joe Chambers and Art Taylor — but was resolute that that history was a means to the end of developing a personal sound, on which he placed the highest priority.
“I hate it if I keep playing what I know,” he told fellow drummer Joe Farnsworth in a 2022 DownBeat interview. “Show me something I don’t know. I want something different.”
As a leader, Foster was much less prolific — at least on records. He headed only eight sessions in nearly 50 years. However, he maintained a working band consistently from the mid-’90s to the mid-2020s. He was a frequent bandstand presence at Smoke on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Aloysius Tyrone Foster was born Jan. 18, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia, the second son of John T. Foster Sr., a tailor’s assistant, and Thelma Foster, a housewife. The family moved to New York when he was a toddler, and he grew up in the city’s Harlem neighborhood. The family was a musical one: Foster’s father also played bass, his older brother, congas. He recalled banging on pots and pans as a very young child before his parents bought him a practice pad when he was 6, and he began formally taking lessons at 13.
He made his professional debut in 1964 when trumpeter Blue Mitchell formed a quintet that took up residence at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. Foster subsequently made his recording debut that summer on Mitchell’s Blue Note album The Thing To Do. He remained with Mitchell for the next three years, then went on to play soul-jazz gigs with pianist Larry Willis and trumpeter Hugh Masekela — striving through all that time, he said, to develop a sound of his own.
That sound had arrived by the time Miles Davis heard Foster playing in 1972 and hired the drummer to replace Jack DeJohnette in his own electric jazz-rock fusion band. He first appeared on Davis’ 1972 album In Concert, where he was immediately hailed for his funk chops. Foster remained with Davis until the trumpeter’s retirement in 1975, then rejoined his band after Davis came out of retirement in 1980. Foster continued to work in Davis’ regular band until 1985, then sporadically until 1989. He made two electric albums of his own, Mixed Roots (1978) and Mr. Foster (1979), during Davis’ retirement.
During the 1980s, however, Foster also made highly acclaimed albums with pianist Tommy Flanagan and with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, establishing his bona fides in bebop-based acoustic jazz and continuing to develop his fusion chops.
Freelancing dominated his career until the mid-1990s, when he formed a band with saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist David Kikoski and bassist Doug Weiss. (While many of the chairs in the band rotated, Weiss remained with Foster for over 20 years.) However, it was the release in 2003 of Oh! by ScoLoHoFo — a collective quartet co-led by guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Dave Holland and Foster — that jump-started Foster’s career as a leader. He recorded an album at the Village Vanguard in 2008, then in the early 2010s entrenched himself at Smoke. Foster recorded his final two albums, 2019’s Inspirations And Dedications and 2022’s Reflections, on the club’s Smoke Sessions label and made his last performance there on Jan. 18, 2025, his 82nd birthday.
In addition his daughter Kierra, Foster is survived by Bonnie Steinberg, his wife of 47 years, and two daughters: Monique and Simone (both, like Kierra, from a previous marriage). He was predeceased by a son, Brandyn. DB
That was December 1986. Yes, I can sometimes remember back that far.
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I have to remember, there were plenty other high quality jazz sax men besides Stan Getz. It’s good to find out about one of those artists. My jazz vocabulary is sort of limited.
Thanks!
Anytime, brother.
Great drummer. I saw him with Miles Davis a couple times. Kick ass!
I read your profile; I'm actually aware of Chris Brubeck. I was a professional musician for 22 years, no big names. Mostly in the Savannah/Hilton Head area, and a little bit out here between Denver and Cheyenne.
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