Jazz-funk: “The Two-Headed Freap”

During the 1980s, Ronnie Foster, in addition to remaining as a studio musician, also devoted himself to record production working with most of the musicians with whom he had previously played with as well as soul jazz father and organist Jimmy Smith, Puerto Rican pop singer Chayanne and Brazilians guitarist Pepeu Gomes, singer, pianist and composer Guilherme Arantes and singer and songwriter Djavan. In 1986 he issued his latest album The Racer for Pro Jazz Records and collaborated in Street Dreams by country guitarist, composer and record producer Chet Atkins, who created the country music style known as “Nashville Sound”.

That same year Foster participated in Wonderland by soul jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine playing piano, organ, synthesizers and vibraphone, and in 1989 in Time Out of Mind by smooth jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., in which he brings “Jamaica”. During the 1990s he kept performing with his closest musicians and contributed to This Is Love (1998) by smooth jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. In 1998 he produced the successful Pleasures of the Night by singer Will Downing and saxophonist Gerald Albright. Also his old recordings were sampled by hip hop and acid jazz artists for their compositions. In 2002 Foster appeared in Downing’s Sensual Journey, which ranked third on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart, and then left for Las Vegas. There he composed the music for the Storm stage show at the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas resort. He was also musical director of Air Play, performed at the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel and casino and of Human Nature at the Hotel Imperial Palace and The Venetian Resort Hotel. Later he was hired by entertainer, singer and songwriter Clint Holmes, with whom he worked for four years, and received Las Vegas best Jazz Instrumentalist Overall 2006. In 2016 he won the Jazz Organ Fellowship Lifetime Achievement Award at The San Jose Jazz Festival and currently plays with his blues, jazz, soul, funk and Latin music trio with guitarist Jake Langley and drummer Jess Gopen.