Frank Foster, Jazz Saxophonist and Count Basie Collaborator, Dead At 82

Frank Foster, a multi-talented jazz music, died on Tuesday, July 26 from kidney failure. The saxophonist, flautist, arranger, composer and educator was a frequent collaborator with Count Basie. He was 82 years old when he passed away at his Chesapeake, Va., home, as the Village Voice reports.

The tenor and soprano and began his early jazz career at Wilberforce University in Ohio. After serving in the Korean War he returned to the States and joined the Count Basie Orchestra in 1953.

He eventually departed Basie's group in 1970 to strike out as a bandleader himself. Foster was also a gifted jazz educator at both high school and collegiate levels teaching at Queen's College and in the New York City public school system.

In 2001, he suffered a stroke which rendered him incapable of playing music any longer, though he continued to be an active arranger and composer. In 2002, Foster was awarded the Jazz Masters Fellowship by the by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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