Gary Foster (musician)
Encyclopedia
Gary Foster is an American instrumentalist who plays saxophones, clarinets, and flutes (Multireedist
); he is considered a "crossover" artist who performs in jazz
, pop
, and classical
genres. As a jazz artist he has recorded under his own name for Concord Records
and several other labels. He is known for his elegant and laid back style on both the alto and tenor saxes, being a devotee of Lennie Tristano
, Lee Konitz
, and Warne Marsh
. He has been prominent in the film, television, and music recording industry for five decades having played woodwinds on over 500 movie scores and a member of over 200 live and television orchestras. His career includes recording on numerous Grammy, Academy Award, Emmy, and Golden Globe winning media and soundtracks for artists and composers such as Carol Burnett
, Bob Dylan
, Barbra Striesand, Mel Torme
, Toshiko Akiyoshi
, Frank Sinatra
, Pat Williams, John Williams
, Natalie Cole
, Jerry Fielding
, Cal Tjader
, Marty Paich
, Michael Bublé
and many others. Gary Foster has received the Most Valuable Player Award for woodwind doubling from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
(NARAS).
in 1936, he started on the clarinet at age 13. His first personal musical inspiration was Olin Parker, a Jr. High School music director and private teacher who introduced Foster to Woody Herman
, Count Basie
and many other types of music. He listened closely to the Woody Herman
orchestra recording of "Four Brothers" from the late 1940s which featured jazz saxophone icons Stan Getz
, Zoot Sims
and Serge Chaloff
. For Foster, Getz stood out on the tenor saxophone because of his tone. Getz and other players in turn lead back to Lester Young
and then Charlie Parker
who Foster also recognizes as major influences. His earliest professional experience was at age of 15 playing Leavenworth
VFW
Hall dances with bassist Harold Stanford; "if they didn't dance, you weren't doing your job." After high school Foster first studied at Central College
in Fayette, Missouri
, he then transferred to the University of Kansas
where he primarily studied classical clarinet
and music education and received his BM Ed. and BM (Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor in Clarinet Performance), further graduate study was done in Musicology
and Conducting
. While there in school at KU he met and played with Kansas City
jazz trumpet
great Carmell Jones
.
to work as a jazz artist on the West Coast; at first in L.A. he taught privately and studied the flute
. Shortly after settling in Alhambra, California
(near downtown, in east Los Angeles
), Foster realized there just wasn't enough work available for a saxophonist to make a living only playing jazz
; he turned to studio work as a woodwind doubler to support his family. His initial associations with Clare Fischer
and Warne Marsh
in Los Angeles
have been key friendships and vital to Foster's artistic approach to music, specifically jazz improvisation
. Jazz critics such as Zan Stewart
more closely relate Foster's style and concept (on saxophone
) to that of Lee Konitz
, Paul Desmond
, or Art Pepper
(West Coast Jazz
style); the music of Lennie Tristano
and the concepts forwarded to him through Warne Marsh
have been of great inspiration and influence over the years. Clare Fischer has been a mentor, inspiration, friend and close colleague for nearly fifty years. "There was great nourishment in that part of my life," Foster recalls. "Clare ... it's hard to find any word that describes him, he's so completely unique...And Warne became one of my closest friends." Foster said if the choice were made, he would focus his time and energies on jazz. "I'm a jazz player at heart... that's my main interest."
From its beginnings in 1973 until 1982 he was a member of the Grammy Award
winning Toshiko Akiyoshi
- Lew Tabackin
Big Band in Los Angeles; he recorded and toured extensively with the group. He has also worked in the reed sections of notable big bands of Clare Fischer
, Louis Bellson, Mike Barone, Ed Shaughnessy, and the Marty Paich
Dek-tette. Other notable jazz groups Foster has been a part of and recorded with are those of Cal Tjader
, Poncho Sanchez
, Sammy Nestico
, Shelly Manne
, and Rosemary Clooney
as well as numerous others.
For over 45 years he has made his "primary living" in the studios "...but it's cyclical." The list of credits for television, movies, recordings, and media is extensive. Very few studio musicians compare in terms of longevity and the level of work Foster has continued to do now completing his 5th decade of being a professional musician in Los Angeles
. Most recently he has worked on soundtracks for movies such as Monsters Inc., Ice Age (film)
, Elf (film)
, Meet The Fokkers, Haunted Mansion (film) and a long list of others. His T.V. credits date back to the late 1960's and includes working several seasons with music director Peter Matz
on The Carol Burnett Show
(which won multiple Emmys); Foster has been in the Academy Awards
Television Orchestra for 30 different broadcasts of the show (telecast, awards ceremony).
Foster is a unique woodwind player in that his emphasis on classical playing and repertoire is also important to what his musical career and success entails. He has performed regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
, the Los Angeles Opera
Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
. He is amongst only a handful of musicians in the world who have made a career being able to easily and frequently cross over from jazz to classical to pop on several instruments at such a consistently high level.
and from 1984 through 2000 held the position of Millsap Visiting Professor of Saxophone at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC). He also has served on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) as a professor of saxophone. Foster founded Nova Music Studios in Pasadena, California
as a group of private music instructors. He has co-authored educational materials featuring Foster's playing and soloing style for Alfred Publishing
so to aid younger saxophone students. Gary Foster also conducts clinics at colleges several times a year and performs and lectures at professional music symposiums.
Multireedist
Multireedist is a term sometimes used to describe a musician who is a capable performer on more than one reed instrument. Many reed instruments are similar enough that if a musician plays one, they are expected to be able to play the other. Examples of this are the oboe and English horn or the...
); he is considered a "crossover" artist who performs in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, and classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
genres. As a jazz artist he has recorded under his own name for Concord Records
Concord Records
Concord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...
and several other labels. He is known for his elegant and laid back style on both the alto and tenor saxes, being a devotee of Lennie Tristano
Lennie Tristano
Leonard Joseph Tristano was a jazz pianist, composer and teacher of jazz improvisation. He performed in the cool jazz, bebop, post bop and avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long...
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
, and Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh
Warne Marion Marsh was an American tenor saxophonist born in Los Angeles.-Biography:Marsh came from an affluent background: his father was the cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh , and his mother Elizabeth was a violinist...
. He has been prominent in the film, television, and music recording industry for five decades having played woodwinds on over 500 movie scores and a member of over 200 live and television orchestras. His career includes recording on numerous Grammy, Academy Award, Emmy, and Golden Globe winning media and soundtracks for artists and composers such as Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Barbra Striesand, Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi
is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Pat Williams, John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Jerry Fielding
Jerry Fielding
Jerry Fielding was an American radio, record, film and television composer, conductor, and musical director.-Childhood and education:...
, Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
, Marty Paich
Marty Paich
Martin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
, Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
and many others. Gary Foster has received the Most Valuable Player Award for woodwind doubling from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
(NARAS).
Early life, musical education and influences
Gary Foster was born in Leavenworth, KansasLeavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
in 1936, he started on the clarinet at age 13. His first personal musical inspiration was Olin Parker, a Jr. High School music director and private teacher who introduced Foster to Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
and many other types of music. He listened closely to the Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
orchestra recording of "Four Brothers" from the late 1940s which featured jazz saxophone icons Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Zoot Sims
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...
and Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.The son of noted Boston piano teachers, Margaret and Julius Chaloff, he was among the few major jazz performers on his instrument. Until Chaloff the only prominent baritone player in jazz was Harry Carney of the Duke Ellington Orchestra...
. For Foster, Getz stood out on the tenor saxophone because of his tone. Getz and other players in turn lead back to Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
and then Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
who Foster also recognizes as major influences. His earliest professional experience was at age of 15 playing Leavenworth
Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
VFW
VFW
VFW may refer to:*Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke*Veterans of Foreign Wars*Veterans of Future Wars*Video for Windows*VFW Parkway...
Hall dances with bassist Harold Stanford; "if they didn't dance, you weren't doing your job." After high school Foster first studied at Central College
Central Methodist University
Central Methodist University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university located in Fayette, Missouri. CMU is an accredited four year institution of higher education and offers masters, bachelors, and associates degrees...
in Fayette, Missouri
Fayette, Missouri
Fayette is a city in Howard County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,793 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Howard County. It is in the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, he then transferred to the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
where he primarily studied classical clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and music education and received his BM Ed. and BM (Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor in Clarinet Performance), further graduate study was done in Musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
and Conducting
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
. While there in school at KU he met and played with Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
jazz trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
great Carmell Jones
Carmell Jones
Carmell Jones was an American jazz trumpet player.Jones was born in Kansas City, Kansas. He is best known for his work with Horace Silver, appearing in the album Song for My Father....
.
Professional career
At the age 26 (in 1961) Gary Foster moved to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to work as a jazz artist on the West Coast; at first in L.A. he taught privately and studied the flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
. Shortly after settling in Alhambra, California
Alhambra, California
Alhambra is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, which is approximately eight miles from the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. As of the 2010 census, the population was 83,089, down from 85,804 at the 2000 census. The city's...
(near downtown, in east Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
), Foster realized there just wasn't enough work available for a saxophonist to make a living only playing jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
; he turned to studio work as a woodwind doubler to support his family. His initial associations with Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer is an American composer, arranger, pianist and organist. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.-Early years:...
and Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh
Warne Marion Marsh was an American tenor saxophonist born in Los Angeles.-Biography:Marsh came from an affluent background: his father was the cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh , and his mother Elizabeth was a violinist...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
have been key friendships and vital to Foster's artistic approach to music, specifically jazz improvisation
Jazz improvisation
Jazz improvisation is an important aspect of jazz. Basically, improvisation is composing on the spot and coming up with melodies off the top of one's head. Traditionally, jazz improvisation was distinguished from other forms of music improvisation by its chordal complexity, often exhibiting ii V...
. Jazz critics such as Zan Stewart
Zan Stewart
Zan Stewart is an American jazz writer and musician. .-Biography:He is the son of Cassius Lynford Stewart , an accountant for film studios in Hollywood and also a pianist, guitarist, and artist; and Elizabeth Wilbur Stewart , who, as Elizabeth Wilbur, was an actress in Hollywood in the late 1930s...
more closely relate Foster's style and concept (on saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
) to that of Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
, Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
, or Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
(West Coast Jazz
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
style); the music of Lennie Tristano
Lennie Tristano
Leonard Joseph Tristano was a jazz pianist, composer and teacher of jazz improvisation. He performed in the cool jazz, bebop, post bop and avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long...
and the concepts forwarded to him through Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh
Warne Marion Marsh was an American tenor saxophonist born in Los Angeles.-Biography:Marsh came from an affluent background: his father was the cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh , and his mother Elizabeth was a violinist...
have been of great inspiration and influence over the years. Clare Fischer has been a mentor, inspiration, friend and close colleague for nearly fifty years. "There was great nourishment in that part of my life," Foster recalls. "Clare ... it's hard to find any word that describes him, he's so completely unique...And Warne became one of my closest friends." Foster said if the choice were made, he would focus his time and energies on jazz. "I'm a jazz player at heart... that's my main interest."
From its beginnings in 1973 until 1982 he was a member of the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi
is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...
- Lew Tabackin
Lew Tabackin
Lew Tabackin is a jazz flautist and a tenor saxophonist. He is married to Toshiko Akiyoshi, who is a jazz pianist and a composer/arranger.-Biography:...
Big Band in Los Angeles; he recorded and toured extensively with the group. He has also worked in the reed sections of notable big bands of Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer
Clare Fischer is an American composer, arranger, pianist and organist. His parents were of German, French, Irish-Scot, and English backgrounds.-Early years:...
, Louis Bellson, Mike Barone, Ed Shaughnessy, and the Marty Paich
Marty Paich
Martin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
Dek-tette. Other notable jazz groups Foster has been a part of and recorded with are those of Cal Tjader
Cal Tjader
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...
, Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez
Poncho Sanchez , a Mexican-American, is a conguero , Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, Sanchez and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul...
, Sammy Nestico
Sammy Nestico
Samuel "Sammy" Louis Nestico is a prolific and well known composer and arranger of big band music...
, Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
, and Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
as well as numerous others.
For over 45 years he has made his "primary living" in the studios "...but it's cyclical." The list of credits for television, movies, recordings, and media is extensive. Very few studio musicians compare in terms of longevity and the level of work Foster has continued to do now completing his 5th decade of being a professional musician in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Most recently he has worked on soundtracks for movies such as Monsters Inc., Ice Age (film)
Ice Age (film)
Ice Age is a 2002 American computer-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson. The story follows three Paleolithical mammals attempting to return a lost human baby to its parents...
, Elf (film)
Elf (film)
Elf is a 2003 comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide.-Plot:A baby crawls into Santa Claus' sack while he is...
, Meet The Fokkers, Haunted Mansion (film) and a long list of others. His T.V. credits date back to the late 1960's and includes working several seasons with music director Peter Matz
Peter Matz
Peter Matz was an award winning American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent artists, including Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and Barbra Streisand...
on The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
(which won multiple Emmys); Foster has been in the Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
Television Orchestra for 30 different broadcasts of the show (telecast, awards ceremony).
Foster is a unique woodwind player in that his emphasis on classical playing and repertoire is also important to what his musical career and success entails. He has performed regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is a 40-member American chamber orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, considered by music critic Jim Svejda as "America's finest chamber orchestra".-History:...
, the Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is a symphony orchestra which is managed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and plays the vast majority of its performances at the Hollywood Bowl....
. He is amongst only a handful of musicians in the world who have made a career being able to easily and frequently cross over from jazz to classical to pop on several instruments at such a consistently high level.
Teaching and education career
Gary Foster is a strong advocate of music education and has been teaching privately and at the collegiate level since 1960. From 1971 to 1991 he was on the faculty at Pasadena City CollegePasadena City College
Pasadena City College is a community college in Pasadena, California, USA, located on Colorado Boulevard. PCC is the third largest community college campus in the United States. PCC was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. In 1954, Pasadena Junior College merged with another junior...
and from 1984 through 2000 held the position of Millsap Visiting Professor of Saxophone at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC). He also has served on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
(UCLA) as a professor of saxophone. Foster founded Nova Music Studios in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
as a group of private music instructors. He has co-authored educational materials featuring Foster's playing and soloing style for Alfred Publishing
Alfred Publishing
Alfred Music Publishing is a family-owned and operated music publishing company, founded in 1922. Headquartered in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, it is the largest educational music publisher in the world.- Profile :...
so to aid younger saxophone students. Gary Foster also conducts clinics at colleges several times a year and performs and lectures at professional music symposiums.
Other groups or acts worked with (partial list)
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- Linda RonstadtLinda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
- Barry ManilowBarry ManilowBarry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
- Johnny MathisJohnny MathisJohn Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
- Quincy JonesQuincy JonesQuincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
- PrincePrincePrince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
- Stevie WonderStevie WonderStevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
- Vince GillVince GillVincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
- Dr. JohnDr. JohnMalcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
- Melissa ManchesterMelissa ManchesterMelissa Manchester is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s, she has recorded generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films, and on stage....
- Michael FeinsteinMichael FeinsteinMichael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs...
- Andy WilliamsAndy WilliamsHoward Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
- Debby BooneDebby BooneDeborah Anne Boone is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year...
- Paul AnkaPaul AnkaPaul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
- Thomas QuasthoffThomas QuasthoffThomas Quasthoff is a German bass-baritone. Although his reputation was initially based on his performance of Romantic lieder, Quasthoff has proven to have a remarkable range from the Baroque cantatas of Bach to solo jazz improvisations.-Biography:Quasthoff was born in Hildesheim, Germany, with...
- Diane SchuurDiane SchuurDiane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
Select discography
- 1964: Alone Together duos with Dennis Budimer (Revelation No.1)
- 1968: Thesaurus (aka Twas Only Yesterday) with Clare Fischer (Atlantic Records 1520)
- 1968: Subconsciously (Revelation No.5)
- 1969: Ne Plus Ultra with Warne Marsh (Revelation No.12)
- 1972: Report of the 1st Annual Symposium on Relaxed Improvisation with Warne Marsh (Revelation No.17)
- 1974: Kogun with Toshiko Akiyoshi (RCA)
- 1978: Huracan with Cal Tjader (Crystal Clear Records)
- 1981: Clare Fischer & Salsa Picante Present 2+2 with Clare Fischer(PAUSA Records 7086, Grammy winner)
- 1982: Warne Marsh Meets Gary Foster (Toshiba-EMI)
- 1986: Kansas City Connections (Revelation No.48)
- 1991: Make Your Own Fun (Concord Records)
- 1993: Live At Maybeck Hall with Allen Broadbent (Concord Records)
- 1996: Body & Soul Lee Konitz/Gary Foster, A Tribute to Warne Marsh (Insights Tokyo Records)
- 2003: Bobby Shew, Gary Foster & Friends-Play Music Of Reed Kotler (Torii Records)
- 2006: A Family Affair with the Clare Fischer Clarinet Choir (CFP 030306)
- 2007: Perfect Circularity with Putter Smith (Ajl Records)
External links
- Gary Foster's discography can be obtained at Allmusic Guide – Gary Foster (discography) and Allmusic Guide – Gary Foster (credits)
- Gary Foster's movie credits can be obtained at the Internet Movie Database
- Jazz Review: Gary Foster Plays At Donte's (1986)
- New Releases: In Brief : *** Gary Foster, "Make Your Own Fun," Concord Jazz. (1991)
- Jazz Review: Broadbent, Foster Team Well on Piano, Sax (1991)
- Jazz Reviews: Foster Brings Sax, Romance to Newporter (1992)
- Jazz Reviews: Horns Aplenty Still Leave 'Em Wanting More : Alto saxophonists Lee Konitz and Gary Foster are like storytellers in their Hyatt Newporter show. At the end, the audience seemed to be begging for another tale. (1993)
- Jazz Review: Foster Shows Why He's Saxophonist of Note (1995)