Al Foster

Aloysius Tyrone Foster (born January 18, 1943) is an American jazz drummer.

Foster's professional career began in the mid-60s, when he played and recorded with hard bop and swing musicians including Blue Mitchell and Illinois Jacquet.

Foster began composing in the 1970s, and has toured with his own band, including musicians such as bassist Doug Weiss, saxophonist Dayna Stephens, and pianist Adam Birnbaum.

With Kenny Barron

With Joanne Brackeen

With Miles Davis

With Tommy Flanagan

With Joe Henderson

With Duke Jordan

With Dave Liebman

With Blue Mitchell

With Frank Morgan

With Art Pepper

With Cecil Payne

With Chris Potter

With Sonny Rollins

With McCoy Tyner

With Cedar Walton

With Larry Willis

With Steve Kuhn

With others

He joined Miles Davis's group when Jack DeJohnette left in 1972, and played with Davis until 1985.

Foster played jazz fusion with Miles Davis during the 70s and was one of the few people to have contact with Davis during his retirement from 1975 to 1980.

During Davis's retirement, Foster continued to play and record acoustic jazz with Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, and other band leaders.

Foster has also released several solo albums under his own name, starting with Mixed Roots in 1978.

Foster was born in Richmond, Virginia, United States, and grew up in New York.

He began playing drums at the age of 13 and made his recording debut on Blue Mitchell's, The Thing to Do, at age 20.

Foster played on Miles Davis's 1981 comeback album The Man with the Horn, and was the only musician to play in Davis's band both before, and after, his retirement.

After leaving Davis's band in the mid-80s, Foster toured and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, and many other band leaders, primarily working in acoustic jazz settings.

In his 1989 autobiography, Davis described the first time he heard Foster play live in 1972 at the Cellar Club in Manhattan: "He [Foster] knocked me out because he had such a groove and he would just lay it right in there. That was the kind of thing I was looking for. Al could set it up for everybody else to play off and just keep the groove going forever."