Lukuisten jazzin suurnimien rinnalla soittanut rumpali Al Foster on kuollut. Asian vahvistaa muusikon tytär Kierra Foster-Ba Instagramissa. Fosterin pitkäaikainen kumppani Bonnie Rose Steinberg puolestaan kertoo NPR:lle 82-vuotiaan rumpalin menehtyneen vakavaan sairauteen.
Richmondissa Virginiassa syntynyt Foster varttui Harlemissa ja aloitti tavoitteellisen rumpujen soiton 12-vuotiaana. Ensikosketuksensa studiotyöskentelyyn hän sai Blue Mitchellin vuoden 1964 The Thing to Do -albumilla. Viisi vuotta myöhemmin Miles Davis näki Fosterin esiintymässä jazzklubilla New Yorkin Upper West Sidella ja värväsi tämän bändiinsä.
Foster liittyi uudelleen Sonny Rollinsin yhtyeeseen 1970-luvun lopulla saatuaan saksofonistilta potkut vuonna 1968. 1970-luvun lopulta 1980-luvulle Foster soitti muun muassa Herbie Hancockin, McCoy Tynerin sekä Horace Silverin kanssa.
Foster jatkoi aktiivisena musiikin parissa aina kuolemaansa saakka.
Foster toured with Davis until the latter’s temporary retirement in 1975, and his work can be heard on live albums such as In Concert, Agharta, and Dark Magus. He also played on the Davis several studio LPs, such as On the Corner and Big Fun. The extended jazz-funk jam “Mr. Foster,” recorded during the On the Corner sessions, was named in his honor. Saxophonist Sonny Rollins had previously fired Foster from his band after their first gig together in 1968, but would bring him on tour in Europe a decade later, and even claimed that “Harlem Boys,” from his 1979 album, Don’t Ask, was inspired by the two musicians’ similar upbringings.
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Foster also backed up pianists Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Horace Silver. In 1978, he became one of four members in the Milestones Jazzstars—a label-made supergroup that also featured Rollins, Tyner, and bassist Ron Carter—and, in 1985, both he and Carter lent their talents to saxophone virtuoso Joe Henderson’s The State of the Tenor, Vols. 1 & 2.
Foster continued composing and performing until just months before his death, holding a longstanding residency at the Upper West Side club Smoke and sharing his last album, Reflections, in 2022. In 1989’s Miles: The Autobiography, co-written with Quincy Troupe, Davis wrote that “Al could set shit up for everybody else to play off and then he could keep the groove going forever…for what I wanted in a drummer, Al Foster had it all.”
