Biography
Pops Foster ranks among the earliest major figures on string bass, sharing that pioneering status with Steve Brown, Bill Johnson, and Wellman Braud, yet he outlasted them all and preserved the slap-bass solo tradition well into the late 1960s. As far back as 1906 he was already working in ensembles throughout New Orleans. Between 1918 and 1921 he switched to tuba for Fate Marable’s riverboat bands, after which he joined Kid Ory’s California group. By the middle of the decade he had moved to St. Louis, where he performed alongside Charlie Creath and Dewey Jackson. Following his arrival in New York in 1928, Foster worked briefly with King Oliver before entering the Luis Russell Orchestra, whose sections gained powerful momentum from his driving bass lines. He remained with Russell through the entire 1935–1940 stretch during which the band served as Louis Armstrong’s regular accompaniment. Once that engagement concluded, the New Orleans revival kept Foster steadily employed; he recorded and performed with Art Hodes, Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet in 1945, and Bob Wilber. He crossed the Atlantic with Sammy Price in 1955–1956, spent the next five years in San Francisco with Earl Hines from 1956 to 1961, and then completed a final engagement in Elmer Snowden’s trio during 1963–1964. His autobiography appeared in 1971, after his death.