Results for "Frank Foster"

Frank Foster

Born: September 23, 1928

Born September 23, 1928 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Frank Benjamin Foster III began his long musical career at age eleven, when he took up the clarinet. Two years later he began playing alto saxophone, advancing technically to the point of performing with local dance bands at age 14. He began to compose and arrange at 15, and led his own 12- piece band while still only a senior in high school. Foster attended Wilberforce University, then left for Detroit in 1949 (with trumpeter Snooky Young) where he played with such local musicians as Wardell Gray. Upon finishing his military service in 1953, Foster joined Count Basie's big band (replacing Eddie Lockjaw Davis) on the recommendation of Ernie Wilkins

Joe La Barbera: World Travelers

by Dave Linn
August 27, 2023

Drummer Joe La Barbera has an extensive and impressive resume. At the age of 20, he played in the second drum chair for the Buddy Rich Big Band before driving the 1972 stellar lineup of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd. In 1978, he was offered the prestigious opportunity to be part of the acclaimed (and what turned ...

The Color of Jazz: Part 1

by Monk Rowe
August 22, 2023

Jotting Down the Notes / The Arrangers: Part 1

by Monk Rowe
August 10, 2023

Jae Sinnett's Zero to 60 Quartet: Commitment

by Jack Bowers
May 23, 2023

Commitment, drummer Jae Sinnett's nineteenth album as leader, is a generally admirable session wherein his Zero to 60 Quartet is in fact a Quintet on most numbers thanks to the inclusion of renowned trumpeter Randy Brecker who shares the front line with veteran saxophonist Steve Wilson. The quintet comes out smokin' on Sinnett's ...

Les DeMerle: Once in a Lifetime

by Jack Bowers
May 16, 2023

Drummer Les DeMerle recorded his first album, Once in a Lifetime, when he was a twenty-year-old prodigy in 1967. However, as is sometimes true in the music business, the album was lost in the shuffle at Atlantic Records and sat gathering dust until someone had the good sense to retrieve and release it some fifty-six years ...

The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician’s Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White

by AAJ Staff
May 2, 2023

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 15 “Angel Of Love," from Mike & Dorothy Longo's The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician's Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White (Redwood Publishing, 2023). It was 1966. Word had gotten out, and it felt as though everyone was complimenting me about my gig at the ...

London Crate-Diggers BBE Reveal Lost J-Jazz Gems

by Chris May
April 6, 2023

In his introduction to The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography Of Francis Wolff (Rizzoli, 1995), the late Charlie Lourie reported a remarkable event he had witnessed at the inaugural Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in 1985. “Where else but in Japan," wrote Lourie, “can one see a field packed with fifteen thousand teens and twentysomethings roar ...

Basie All Stars: Live At Fabrik Vol. 1

by Chris May
March 13, 2023

Such are the glories of his band's recorded legacy from the 1930s through the 1950s, that the mere mention of Count Basie's name will trigger a Pavlovian response from his fan base. Like no other, the Count Basie Orchestra epitomised big-band swing at its most sublime; reefer fuelled, riff based, loose and louche Kansas City jazz ...

Joe Lovano: Cleveland's Ultimate Jazz Titan

by Matthew Alec
December 20, 2022

Friday, June 24th, 2022, saxophonist Joe Lovano's group Sound Prints (alongside trumpeter and co-leader Dave Douglas) delivered a tour de force performance to spellbound audience members at the historic Mimi Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square as a part of Cleveland's annual Tri-C JazzFest. Seasoned group interplay between drummer Rudy Royston, bassist Matt Penman, and pianist Leo ...