Frank Foster rip....

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman's Statement on the Death of NEA Jazz Master Frank Foster
For immediate release
July 26, 2011

“On behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts, it is with great sadness that I acknowledge the passing of 2002 NEA Jazz Master Frank Foster. An extraordinary saxophonist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator, Frank Foster’s contributions to jazz are numerous. We join many others in the jazz community and beyond in mourning his death while celebrating his life.”Best known for his work in the Count Basie Orchestra (and as the composer of the Count Basie hit, "Shiny Stockings"), saxophone player Frank Foster was an extremely successful composer. He created a large body of work for jazz, including works contributed to albums by singers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and a commissioned work for the 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid Suite, written for jazz orchestra. In the 1970s, Foster played with contemporary musicians such as Elvin Jones, George Coleman, and Joe Farrell and began expanding his compositions. He led his own band, the Loud Minority, until 1986 when he assumed leadership of the Count Basie Orchestra from Thad Jones. In addition to performing, Foster has also served as a musical consultant in the New York City public schools and taught at Queens College and the State University of New York at Buffalo. Foster is the recipient of two Grammy Awards."

I aways thought he was a hell of a saxophonist whose worth was somewhat burried in the Basie band. The mid 50s tracks with Monk and Elmo Hope are standoutouts as was his work with Elvin.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Washington Post Obit


what spirit the man had


the classic

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

FROM - THE NEW YORKER

In Memoriam: Frank Foster
Posted by Richard Brody
I’m sad to learn and to report that the tenor saxophonist Frank Foster died today at the age of eighty-two. He was a musician of paradox, a bebopper who came up with the generation of Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon but made his name, in the nineteen-fifties, as a soloist, composer, and arranger with Count Basie’s reconstituted band, which he led, decades later, after Basie’s death. He recorded plenty, though not often as a leader; his suave, strong sound graced some fine recordings by the modernist Elmo Hope in the fifties. (I’m particularly fond of his work on the album “Hope Meets Foster,” especially his bluff, bluesy solo on the last track, “Yaho.” Here’s the opening number, the aptly titled “Wail, Frank, Wail.”) My favorite Foster performance, however, features him on his composition “Shiny Stockings,” a modern standard, which he recorded, in June, 1967, in a trio with the drummer Elvin Jones and the bassist Richard Davis for Jones’s album “Heavy Sounds” (it’s also available on iTunes). He swaggers quietly and confidently, revelling in the jaunty tune; even as he propels himself into breathy high-register flurries, prompted by Jones’s snappy brushwork and Davis’s harmonic and rhythmic fancies, he keeps an eye on the contours of the melody. It’s a smart, swinging, calmly virtuosic convergence of classic styles and modern ideas.

P.S. On Twitter, Nicholas Payton pointed out that Jerry Lewis’s great mogul pantomime in “The Errand Boy” is set to the Basie band’s recording of “Blues in Hoss’ Flat,” composed by Foster, from the album “Chairman of the Board”:

BN

[burning dog]

He seemed to move with ease between post-bop and streamlined swing. I think I've heard another album where he was with Elvin Jones, possibly a live one.

[Ian Thumwood]

I aways thought he was a hell of a saxophonist whose worth was somewhat burried in the Basie band. The mid 50s tracks with Monk and Elmo Hope are standoutouts as was his work with Elvin.

BN.

This is an amazing statement. The Basie band of the mid to late 50's was one of the greatest jazz groups of all time. Granted that the earlier band may have been better, more radical and historically important, I don't think that we should lose sight of the fact that the "New Testament " was one of the most influencial "Modern" jazz groups of it's era. It is fashionable to assume that the innovations that Gil Evans made around the same time defined orchestral jazz writing, but the Basie band of this era was seriously plugged in to the Modern Jazz of that time too albeit one that chose an alternative route to French Impressionism. The charts performed by the band under Norman Granz' sponsorship defined big band writing to such an extent that only the Ellington orchestra has managed to invoke such a long running influence. Sixty years later, this Basie band still serves as a model both for more conservative orchestras and others who are attempting to explore wider possibilities. I would also suggest that this music has managed to stand the test of time more thoroughly than other styles of jazz of equal vintage. Curiuous to hear 2 bands last month plays charts by the Duke and Basie respectively on the same stage with the curious impression that the Basie charts chosen still sounded fresh whereas the Ellington arrangements seemed rooted in their era - not a result I would have anticipated. More than any other band before or since, the Basie band of the mid-50's was a Manifesto for big band writing which has influenced countless bands such as Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, Juggernaut or Clayton - Hamilton. The band was filled with more "modern" soloists such as Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Frank Wess and Al Grey who had emerged through the late forties and I very much doubt any of them would have considered themselves "buried" or unable to express themselves artistically whilst employed by Basie. In fact, it was very much a cherished gig and the interviews of ex-Basieites definately invokes fierce loyalty. I'm not familiar with Foster's work with Elmo Hope or Elvin Jones, I would respectfully suggest that his contribution as soloist and writer for Basie eclipses these performances -- certainly in the perception of 99% of jazz fans.

When you are talking about the "Great" jazz groups of the 50's and rattle off the usual examples such as MJQ, Miles Davis Quintet, etc, etc, the Basie band of that decade probably deserves to be within the top five.Seriously.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

IAN - "I'm not familiar with Foster's work with Elmo Hope or Elvin Jones, I would respectfully suggest that his contribution as soloist and writer for Basie eclipses these performances -- certainly in the perception of 99% of jazz fans."That'll be the 99% of jazz fans that haven't heard them then?

While you are at it check out "Frankly Spaeking", the Hoarce Parlan album made with Frank Foster et Frank Strozier.

I just suggesting his small band stuff is superb!

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

lovely amateur video clip

Iverson blogs on Frank Foster

[Serial_Apologist]

lovely amateur video clip

Iverson blogs on Frank Foster

You never tire of the ole 12-bar when it's played that good, do you. Big gap in my listening - I never realized just how good FF could be.

Amusing to hear the audience applaud Terri-Lynne's breaks. In my neck of the woods, they even applause the heads!