Latest news with #jazz
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Al Foster, Virtuoso Jazz Drummer to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, Dies at 82
Al Foster, 1988 () Al Foster, the jazz drummer who played in bands led by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, among others, has died. Foster's daughter Kierra Foster-Ba shared the news on Instagram and his longtime partner, Bonnie Rose Steinberg, told NPR that he died 'from a serious illness.' He was 82. Born in 1943 in Richmond, Virginia, Aloysius Tyrone Foster grew up in Harlem, the second oldest of five siblings. His first musical idol was bebop drummer Max Roach, whose 1955 recording of 'Cherokee' inspired a 12-year-old Foster to begin practicing every day on the drum kit his father had previously gifted him. The budding musician got his first experience working as a studio musician on Blue Mitchell's 1964 album The Thing to Do, which also featured a young Chick Corea. Foster's big break, however, arrived a few years later, when Miles Davis saw him perform at a jazz club on New York's Upper West Side and recruited the drummer to join his band. 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 On the Corner and Big Fun (1974). 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 '70s and '80s, 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.' Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
'Reach' Jacky Terrasson
For decades, France has been a jazz haven. Paris in-particular has been a home to many iconic players - from guitarist Django Reinhardt to pianist Michel Petrucciani, and the city was also a refuge for countless American musicians in the '50s and '60s. Another leader on today's jazz scene in France is pianist Jacky Terrasson. The son of a French father and an American mother, Terrasson grew up with both European classical music and American bebop ringing in his ears. In the early '90s, he burst onto the international stage after moving to the States, winning the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and signing on with Blue Note Records. Since then, Terrasson has gone onto back names like Dee Dee Bridgewater and Cassandra Wilson, and his own output as a leader on the piano is equally impressive. A stand-out session in his extensive catalogue has to be the album 'Reach'. Recorded in 1995, this trio date featured Jacky behind the piano, accompanied by the brilliant German/Nigerian bassist Ugonna Okegwo and the expressive drummer Leon Parker. On this record, the three musicians show just how much history they have assimilated, with a trio sound that reflects the spirit and interplay of groups led by greats like Bill Evans and Chick Corea.
New York Times
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Al Foster, Master of the Jazz Drums, Is Dead at 82
Al Foster, a drummer who worked with some of the most illustrious names in jazz across a career spanning more than six decades, leaving his distinctive stamp on important recordings by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and many others, died on Wednesday at his apartment in Manhattan. He was 82. His daughter Kierra Foster-Ba announced the death on social media but did not specify a cause. Mr. Foster came up emulating great bebop percussionists like Max Roach, but his most high-profile early gig came with Mr. Davis, who hired him in 1972, when he was refining an aggressive, funk-informed sound. Mr. Foster's springy backbeats firmly anchored the band's sprawling psychedelic jams. In 'Miles: The Autobiography,' written with Quincy Troupe and published in 1989, Mr. Davis praised Mr. Foster's ability to 'keep the groove going forever.' Mr. Foster also excelled in a more conventional jazz mode, lending an alert, conversational swing to bands led by the saxophonists Mr. Henderson and Mr. Rollins and the pianists Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Tommy Flanagan. 'What he was doing was reminiscent of some of the great drummers of our period,' Mr. Rollins said of Mr. Foster in a phone interview, citing foundational figures like Art Blakey and Max Roach. 'He always had that feeling about him, those great feelings of those people. And that's why I could never be disappointed playing with Al Foster. He was always playing something which I related to.' Mr. Foster often framed his long career as a fulfillment of his early ambitions. 'I've been so blessed because I've played with everybody I fell in love with when I was a young teenager,' he told the website of Jazz Forum, a club in Tarrytown, N.Y. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane on his other love: Sinatra
Even if you're not a regular "Family Guy" viewer, you've probably heard the show's iconic theme song. The song is largely the creation of Seth MacFarlane, whose love of animation may only be rivaled by his love for big, jazzy tunes. In fact, he's even got a semi-regular gig at the Vibrato Grill Jazz Club in Bel Air, Calif., singing songs from the Great American Songbook. But one thing he doesn't seem to love, considering he's lived his life in the public eye, is a certain kind of attention. He says sometimes getting in front of a crowd (or even our "Sunday Morning" cameras) doesn't quite come naturally. He is, he admits, an introvert. "Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. I don't even wanna be here!" he said. Seth MacFarlane performs at the Vibrato Grill Jazz Club in Bel Air, Calif. CBS News In fact, he says he sometimes has to resort to liquid courage. "I think I had like four scotches before I walked out on stage at the Oscars," he said, referring to his hosting gig in 2013. "I do get, yeah, I definitely get nervous." You might know MacFarlane as the voice of Peter, Brian Griffin and Stewie on the show "Family Guy" that he created more than two decades ago. In 1999, MacFarlane became the youngest showrunner in Hollywood history. And less than a decade later, with three network shows on the air, he became Hollywood's highest-paid writer-producer. But back in college, MacFarlane's first love was singing. "My sister, at the time, was going to the Boston Conservatory of Music for musical theater," he said. "She has a beautiful singing voice. And I had got it into my head that I was going to maybe go to grad school for musical theater as well. So, I applied and got in. And I was all set to go to their grad program. And I got this offer from Hanna-Barbera to come do an animated short for a series that they were developing. And so, I just had to take it, moved out to California. But there was an instant there where I could have kind of diverged into a completely different career and never, you know, never even thought about something called 'Family Guy.'" MacFarlane loved film scores as a college student and to this day he uses a live orchestra to score his TV shows. "It's the one part that I don't really understand, even to this day," he said. "There's still something mysterious about how a composer sits down to write, and then a couple weeks later walks in front of an orchestra, plops down these charts, and they all play it. And you hear this insane, magical sound. That still eludes me." Frank Sinatra Jr, and Stewie and Brian (Seth MacFarlane), perform "At Frank Sinatra's Restaurant (Jr.)" from "Family Guy": For his latest album "Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements" (out this week), MacFarlane and Joel McNeely, his composer and arranger for "Family Guy," combed through the Sinatra Family archives for songs that had been arranged for Sinatra but never fully recorded. For McNeely, the process was almost like speaking to the ghosts of the greatest arrangers in popular music, the men who helped make Sinatra's voice shine. McNeely showed an arrangement by Nelson Riddle: "This was the first one we read when we had a sight-reading session at Fox. We got an orchestra together just to see what was there, you know, because there was nothing to reference. But all this time later, these little black pencil dots on paper, there's his voice brought back to life. I mean, it was chilling." Seth MacFarlane recording songs for his album "Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements." Verve/Republic So, what exactly does an arranger do? "Frank Sinatra, there's a recording of him saying that the arrangers could be in a sense a recording secretary, taking the vision of the artist and interpreting it into this," McNeely said. MacFarlane said, "You take a song like 'Fly Me to the Moon,' for example, which I think was originally a ballad. [Here], it's the same song, but it's a completely different animal." McNeely says MacFarlane is preserving the essential legacy of the American Songbook through his recordings and the music of the TV show "Family Guy." But what about the legacy of "Family Guy"? MacFarlane has some thoughts: "When I started the show – this is the conversation that, like, tortures me at night! – when I started the show, my attitude was, it doesn't matter, none of it matters. It's like, It's funny? Let's do it. "And the older I've gotten, I look back at shows that we've done, and I'm like, Gosh, I guess it's a little more complicated than that, isn't it? Comedy and jokes do have an impact. I have to figure out a way to maintain what the show is, and maintain the thing that people love. But at the same time, recognize that, like, all right, I am analyzing it now in a different way than I did when I was younger." If it's true that you're nobody 'till somebody loves you, then thanks to "Family Guy"'s legion of fans, Seth MacFarlane, it turns out, is a very big somebody indeed. Seth MacFarlane performs "Give Me the Simple Life," from his album "Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements": For more info: Story produced by Anthony Laudato. Editor: Remington Korper.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Metro Detroit group, winners of 2025 Grammy, to play free concert this weekend
A southeast Michigan-based classical/jazz ensemble won its first Grammy earlier this year and will play two concerts – one of them free of charge – in metro Detroit this weekend. The Akropolis Reed Quintet won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for the composition "Strands" from their sixth album, "Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?" The ensemble joined forces with pianist/composer Pascal Le Boeuf and drummer Christian Euman for the track, in which Le Boeuf deconstructs the fabric of his American experience by recognizing the strands of his musical DNA, including influences from artists such as Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Leonard Bernstein and Detroit jazz legend Geri Allen. The group will play this Saturday, May 31, at Northville's Marquis Theater, and on Sunday, June 1, at Detroit's Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit, the latter being free to attend. Akropolis is not your grandfather's typically expected, classical reed quintet, said clarinetist and artistic director Kari Landry. 'In the classical wind tradition,' said Landry, 'you have a flute and a French horn, and we don't have that. We have bass clarinet and alto saxophone instead. The five of us were students at the University of Michigan, and we all met in the bands and orchestras together and formed the group back in the 2008 – 09 school year, and it's been the same five of us ever since, which is really, really remarkable. And we're so proud of that. 'When we started out, the reed quintet was basically only in a few instances in the entire world, so there wasn't much music that existed for us to play. To date, we've created over 200 works for the reed quintet, and now there are hundreds of reed quintets, even just in the United States. So we're really proud of the instrumentation hopefully taking root within classical music, and that it'll be around for a long time.' Landry is especially excited about Saturday's Northville date, a hometown gig for her. More: Carl Craig documentary to make Detroit premiere as Movement festival weekend ramps up 'Actually, my husband and I live in downtown Northville, and this is really the first time we've played in our little hometown community. It's going to be really, really fun for us. My husband, Matt, plays saxophone in the group, and we've been in this area for quite a long time. We're playing a good bit of newly commissioned works that have been in our touring book this past season. 'And, for Sunday, the Basilica is just such a gorgeous venue and concert space. And we have a world premiere that's happening there, by Harriet Steinke, who's a fabulous visiting composer who'll be there. It's called 'Mass,' and Harriet based it around the five movements that happen in a mass. All the way from the Kyrie and Gloria to Sanctus and Credo, except it's a contemporary, minimalist, sort of modern classical take on it, using those as loose inspiration. And that concert is free, which is really awesome.' The group is still high from the unexpected Grammy attention, she said. 'The Grammy ceremony was just the coolest thing in the world,' she said, 'being a part of that community and getting to experience all of that. We honestly just went to have a good time – we had no expectation of winning, to be honest, and just wanted to say that we did this and soak it all in. I think it's going to be this moment that we'll remember forever. And it's meant so much, because we're the first ensemble of our kind to ever receive anything like that, let alone to even get a nomination. So it's meant a lot, and it's definitely opening up a lot of doors and opportunities. More: New Motown Museum exhibit honors the life and career of musician-songwriter Hank Cosby 'It really makes us feel incredible about everything we've devoted to it over the last 16 years together.' Landry credits Michigan for the quintet's continued success. 'I think it's because of the southeast Michigan community that we're still going really strong,' she said. 'You know, oftentimes it's not classical groups from the Midwest that get recognized in Los Angeles, or when it comes to these really, really prestigious competitions and awards. So it means a lot to us that we work from here.' The Akropolis Reed Quintet will play from 3-4:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, at Northville's Marquis Theater, 135 E. Main St. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at They will also play from 4-5:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 1, at Detroit's Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit, 1000 Saint Anne St. That concert is free. Learn more about the ensemble at Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Grammy-winning Akropolis Reed Quintet to play free concert in Detroit
