Al Foster - Live at Smoke (2025)

An all-star birthday celebration for the late, great Al Foster at Smoke Jazz Club is captured on the master drummer’s joyous new album, LIVE AT SMOKE - featuring saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist Brad Mehldau and bassist Joe Martin

For more than a decade, the legendary drummer Al Foster had regularly convened an all-star band to celebrate his birthday on stage at Smoke Jazz Club. This year’s festivities, honouring Foster’s 82nd trip around the sun, was particularly special. The band that gathered to both honour and inspire the master drummer featured an incomparable line-up; the music that was sparked by the occasion and by their interplay was luminous, as evidenced by the performances captured on this spirited new live album. Sadly, Foster passed away on May 28, before the music could be released.

The powerhouse tenor saxophonist Chris Potter was a regular at these birthday celebrations, carrying on a collaboration that spanned over 30 years. Joining him and Foster onstage this year also included the acclaimed pianist Brad Mehldau and the impeccable bassist Joe Martin, playing before a packed house of music lovers, family, and friends.

The joyous, raucous, and swinging celebration is captured on the exhilarating LIVE AT SMOKE. The album reveals Foster in magnificent form, as he propels the band with his distinctive, eloquent sense of swing on a set of originals and classics – including some by the jazz giants who enlisted the drummer to make his mark on their own work.

Potter reflects on his long and formative history with Foster in Nate Chinen’s liner notes for the album. “It’s funny to think that Al was probably around my age now when I first started playing with him,” the saxophonist mused. “We all have enough experience now, the younger members of the band, that we’re not necessarily trying to prove everything, or reinvent the wheel. We’ve been working on a concept for many years, and there’s a lot of history between us. So, there’s a comfort level—but not in a coasting kind of way at all. This is some very focused music-making.”

CHRIS POTTER tenor & soprano saxophones
BRAD MEHLDAU piano
JOE MARTIN bass
AL FOSTER drums

Recorded Live on January 18 & 19, 2025
at SMOKE Jazz Club, New York City