Al Foster, the jazz drummer who performed in groundbreaking bands with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Sonny Rollins, has died. He was 82.
Foster’s partner Bonnie Rose Steinberg told NPR in a statement that Foster died “from a serious illness” at his home in New York City. Foster’s daughter, Kierra Foster-Ba, confirmed the death in an Instagram post.
Foster’s relentlessly creative and adaptable percussion work spanned eras and genres within jazz, driving elegant bepop and raucous fusion groups alike.
Davis wrote in his memoir “Miles: The Autobiography” that Foster’s drumming “knocked me out because he had such a groove and he would just lay it right in there … Al could set s— 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.”
Foster played on Davis’ studio album “Big Fun” and his live albums “Dark Magus” and “Agharta.” Davis, in turn, paid homage to Foster’s agile brilliance with the funk single “Mr. Foster,” recorded during his sessions for the 1972 album “On the Corner.”
Aloysius Tyrone Foster was born in 1943 in Richmond, Va., but grew up in Harlem in a family of musicians. First inspired by drummer Max Roach, his career brought him into stages and studios with saxophonists Sonny Rollins (a fruitful partnership that would span decades) and Joe Henderson, who led Foster on the seminal double live album “The State of the Tenor, Vols. 1 & 2.” Rollins said he drew on his and Foster’s similar childhoods for his song “Harlem Boys.”
Foster played in groups with jazz titans like Art Pepper, McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver, among many others. In 1978, he joined the supergroup Milestones Jazzstars with Tyner, Rollins and Ron Carter, and made his debut as a bandleader that same year with “Mixed Roots.”
Later in his career, he collaborated with guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Joe Lovano and bassist Dave Holland in the group ScoLoHoFo. He frequented the Upper West Side club Smoke, whose in-house label released his two final albums, including 2022’s “Reflections.”
Foster is survived by four daughters — Michelle, Kierra, Monique and Simone — and six grandchildren. His son Brandyn died in 2018.
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