Al Foster

American musician

Person Human Q1341043

Facts

19 properties

Instance of: human
Sex or gender: male^[10]
Date of birth: January 18, 1943
Date of death: May 28, 2025
Place of birth: Richmond
Place of death: New York City
Country of citizenship: United States^[8]
Occupation: drummer, composer, jazz musician
Genre: jazz^[11]
Languages spoken, written or signed: English^[18]
Birth name: Aloysius Tyrone Foster^[19]
End of work period: 2023^[22]
Family name: Foster^[15]
Given name: Al^[16]
Instrument: drum kit^[17]
Member of: The Great Jazz Trio^[9]
Name in native language: Al Foster^[20]
Record label: Columbia Records, Blue Note, Verve Records^[12]^[13]^[14]
Start of work period: 1960^[21]

🏷️ Also known as

en Al Foster ar أل فوستر fa ال فاستر he אל פוסטר hu Al Foster it Aloysius Tyrone Foster ja アル・フォスター ko 알 포스터 ru Фостер, Эл ru Эл Фостер

🔖 Identifiers · 39

ISNI: 0000000121427036
VIAF cluster ID: 88077086
Library of Congress Authorities ID: n79106984
GND ID: 134375971
Image (Wikimedia Commons): Al Foster.jpg ↗
AllMusic artist ID: mn0000604137
BAnQ authority ID: 0000483908
BIBSYS ID: 71716
Bibliothèque nationale de France ID: 13938441c
Canadiana Name Authority ID: ncf12074602
Carnegie Hall agent ID: 55376
DBC author ID: 87097990731904

Show all 39 identifiers +27

Deutsche Biographie (GND) ID: 134375971
Discogs artist ID: 271001
Europeana entity: agent/base/64788
Facebook username: AlFoster
Freebase ID: /m/02k5xt
GTAA ID: 99751
Great Norwegian Encyclopedia ID: Al_Foster
HAND ID: D2A9-AFA4-ED3D-7784-5A91
IMDb ID: nm11213207
IdRef ID: 082304688
J9U entity ID: 987007337470605171
Montreux Jazz Festival person ID: 10434
MusicBrainz artist ID: 086dd6b2-0d17-4421-885b-14e4f1816390
Muziekweb performer ID: M00000102565
Myspace ID: alfosterquartet
NE.se ID: al-foster
National Library of Korea ID: KAC2020O5244
National Library of Lithuania ID: LNB:dWK;=Bc
National Library of Spain SpMaBN ID: XX4711029
Oxford Reference overview ID: 20110803095830516
Pitchfork artist ID: 12515-al-foster
RERO ID (legacy): A003255079
RILM ID: 181110
SBN author ID: LO1V266713
SNAC ARK ID: w6389qb3
Songkick artist ID: 154112
WorldCat Entities ID: E39PBJwhxVGHJWr7rTY9wpGrbd

Report an error or request removal Lineage (PROV-JSON)

🔗 Connections

Occupation 3

composer, drummer, jazz musician

Record label 3

Columbia Records, Verve Records, Blue Note

Mb:performer of 2

McCoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster, The Montreal Tapes: Tribute to Joe Henderson

Country of citizenship 1

United States

Family name 1

Foster

Genre 1

jazz

Instance of 1

human

Instrument 1

drum kit

Languages spoken, written or signed 1

English

Mb:member of band 1

The Great Jazz Trio

Place of birth 1

Richmond

Place of death 1

New York City

Sex or gender 1

male

Press Enter · cited answer in seconds

Summary

Al Foster was born on January 18, 1943^[1], in Richmond^[2]. He died on May 28, 2025^[3], in New York City^[4]. He worked as a drummer^[5], composer^[6], and jazz musician^[7].

FAQs

Where was Al Foster born?

Al Foster's place of birth was Richmond^[2].

Where did Al Foster die?

Al Foster passed away in New York City^[4].

What did Al Foster do for work?

Al Foster worked as a drummer^[5], composer^[6], and jazz musician^[7].

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

[2] ↑ Al Foster — place of birth (P19): Richmond. Great Norwegian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2026-10-16. wikidata.org.
[4] ↑ Al Foster — place of death (P20): New York City. npr.org. Retrieved 2025-05-29. npr.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[10] ↑ Al Foster — sex or gender (P21): male. BnF authorities. Retrieved 2015-10-10. wikidata.org.
[8] ↑ Al Foster — country of citizenship (P27): United States. wikidata.org.
[5] ↑ Al Foster — occupation (P106): drummer. Integrated Authority File. Retrieved 2026-04-20. wikidata.org.
[6] ↑ Al Foster — occupation (P106): composer. wikidata.org.
[7] ↑ Al Foster — occupation (P106): jazz musician. Integrated Authority File. Retrieved 2026-04-20. wikidata.org.
[11] ↑ Al Foster — genre (P136): jazz. Montreux Jazz Festival Database. Retrieved 2020-09-28. wikidata.org.
[12] ↑ Al Foster — record label (P264): Columbia Records. wikidata.org.
[13] ↑ Al Foster — record label (P264): Blue Note. wikidata.org.
[14] ↑ Al Foster — record label (P264): Verve Records. wikidata.org.
[9] ↑ Al Foster — member of (P463): The Great Jazz Trio. wikidata.org.
[1] ↑ Al Foster — date of birth (P569): January 18, 1943. MusicBrainz. Retrieved 2026-10-16. wikidata.org.
[3] ↑ Al Foster — date of death (P570): May 28, 2025. npr.org. Retrieved 2025-05-29. npr.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
[15] ↑ Al Foster — family name (P734): Foster. wikidata.org.
[16] ↑ Al Foster — given name (P735): Al. wikidata.org.
[17] ↑ Al Foster — instrument (P1303): drum kit. Montreux Jazz Festival Database. Retrieved 2020-09-28. wikidata.org.
[18] ↑ Al Foster — languages spoken, written or signed (P1412): English. wikidata.org.
[19] ↑ Al Foster — birth name (P1477): Aloysius Tyrone Foster. wikidata.org.
[20] ↑ Al Foster — name in native language (P1559): Al Foster. wikidata.org.
[21] ↑ Al Foster — start of work period (P2031): 1960. wikidata.org.
[22] ↑ Al Foster — end of work period (P2032): 2023. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Al Foster. Retrieved November 11, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/al-foster

MLA “Al Foster.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 11 Nov. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/al-foster.

BibTeX

@misc{4ortxyz_al-foster_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Al Foster}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/al-foster}, note = {Accessed: 2026-11-11}}

LLM prompt

According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Al Foster — https://4ort.xyz/entity/al-foster (retrieved 2026-11-11)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/al-foster · Last refreshed: November 11, 2026

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

27d ago · OKA bot bot · 2026-10-16 view diff on Wikidata ↗

"Changed [nb] labels, descriptions, aliases and claims: other names, source for place of birth, source for date of birth from Store norske leksikon (…"
11w ago · Trivialist · 2026-08-20 view diff on Wikidata ↗

HAND ID → D2A9-AFA4-ED3D-7784-5A91

"Created claim: HAND ID: D2A9-AFA4-ED3D-7784-5A91, batch #269215"
25w ago · Epìdosis · 2026-05-17 view diff on Wikidata ↗

Record label → Columbia Records, Blue Note, Verve Records

Place of death → New York City

End of work period → 2023

Given name → Al

+ 10 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)

"Changed the item: QuickStatements 3.0 batch #31712: import P21 and P106 from GND (11)"

Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.