Credit: Giacomo Petronio

Al Foster, renowned jazz drummer, has died aged 82

Sun 1 June 2025 17:26, UK

Renowned jazz drummer Al Foster has passed away at the age of 82.

Bonnie Rose Steinberg, his partner of more than 47 years, confirmed his death to NPR Music. She said Foster died from a serious illness. He passed on 28th May in his New York City apartment.

Foster inspired modern jazz for more than 60 years, as he played for bands led by the likes of Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. Active since the mid 1960s, the musician was best known for his on-and-off collaborations with Miles Davis in the ’70s and ’80s. He was the only musician to work with Davis before and after his late ’70s retirement.

Davis recruited Foster after hearing him play on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “He knocked me out because he had such a groove and he would just lay it right in there,” Davis remembered in his autobiography.

He first appeared on Davis’ 1972 album In Concert. Foster continued to work in Davis’ regular band until 1985, then sporadically until 1989. He created two of his own electric albums, Mixed Roots in 1978 and Mr. Foster in 1979.

Foster famously mastered many styles of jazz drumming, and was deeply versed in the intricacies of jazz history. “I hate it if I keep playing what I know,” he told fellow drummer Joe Farnsworth in a 2022 DownBeat interview. “Show me something I don’t know. I want something different.”

The virtuoso never took his career for granted. “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, New York.

Foster recorded his final two albums, 2019’s Inspirations And Dedications and 2022’s Reflections, and performed his last show on January 18th, 2025, on his 82nd birthday.

Foster is survived by daughters Kierra, Simone, Michelle and Monique. His son, Brandyn Foster, passed sadly before his father.