FOSTER TO LEAD BASIE ORCHESTRA

Frank Foster has been signed to replace Thad Jones as leader of the Count Basie orchestra. He will play occasional dates with the band for the next month and will take over on a full-time basis in late June.

Jones, who had fronted the orchestra since not long after Basie’s death in 1984, played his last engagement as leader on May 6 and has returned to his home in Copenhagen. He denies rumors that he is leaving due to illness, claiming that he will resume the free-lance composing and conducting assignments that had previously kept him busy in Europe.

Foster, like Jones, is both a soloist and an arranger. He played tenor saxophone in the Basie orchestra from 1953 to 1964. He then worked with Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton and others, played with the drummer Elvin Jones’ combo off and on for several years, then divided his time between the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and his own big band, the Loud Minority.