Search - Frank Foster :: A Fresh Taste of Thad Jones and Frank Foster

A swinging program of big band jazz from the SWR Big Band! Saxophonist/composer/arranger Frank Foster, born in Cincinnati in 1928, is one of the last prominent exponents who played a substantial role in the success of Count Basie's legendary orchestra both as soloist and arranger. Besides Neal Hefti and Quincy Jones, it was particularly Frank Foster and Thad Jones (celebrated on this CD) who determined the distinctive sound of the Basie Band with their arrangements in the fifties and sixties. After Basie's death in 1984, Foster advanced to the position of the new bandleader of the Basie Organization from 1986 until 1995. Frank Foster's engagement as a guest conductor for the SWR Big Band (then called the SDR Big Band) took place within the context of a production and concert series created in the late nineties by then-SDR jazz producer Hans Thomas.