Approaching 80 years of age is occasion enough for anyone to take a moment and look back on a life well lived. For legendary drummer Al Foster, those eight decades have been more memorable than most, filled with exhilarating sounds and encounters with some of the music’s most iconic legends.

On Reflections (out now via Smoke Sessions Records), Foster revisits the work of several of those peers alongside an inspiring quintet of all-stars: Nicholas Payton, Chris Potter, Kevin Hays, and Vicente Archer.

Throughout the session he propels this supremely talented unit through fresh, vital treatments of well-known and less-traveled numbers by iconic legends Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, and McCoy Tyner, all of whom regarded Foster as their first-call drummer for long portions of his celebrated career – at times competing for his services.

Band members Payton, Potter, and Hays each contribute a tune apiece, while Foster penned three well-wrought songs, including two homages to Thelonious Monk that bookend the program.

1. T.S. Monk (6:20)
2. Pent-Up House (5:04)
3. Open Plans (7:17)
4. Blues on the Corner (6:23)
5. Anastasia (5:32)
6. Six (8:21)
7. Punjab (5:11)
8. Beat (6:56)
9. Alone and I (4:51)
10. Half Nelson (5:36)
11. Monk’s Bossa (6:18)

This simply magnificent, richly layered and melodically rhythmic new album opens on fun the free for all being had within T.S. Monk and the euphorically-charged Pent-Up House, before we soon slide into the quieter balladry of Open Plans, then comes the soft shuffle of Blues on the Corner, before another ballad in the form of the beautiful Anastasia is brought forth.

Next up is the shimmering, veritably cinematic Six and the emotive Punjab which are in turn backed by the translucent melodies within Beat, and then comes the quietly dulcet, late night smokey jazz club appeal of Alone and I, the recording rounding out with the upbeat and joyous, trumpet-led Half Nelson, coming to a close on the restrained, and yet magnificently free wheeling Monk’s Bossa.

It’s hard to overstate Foster’s contribution to the musical production of the aforementioned giants over his 60 years as a professional. But, as much as Foster likes to wax nostalgic about the past, it’s also evident on every note of this 68-minute gem that he’s fully committed to living in the moment and playing in the here and now.

This follow-up to his well-received 2019 Smoke Sessions debut, INSPIRATIONS & DEDICATIONS, is Foster’s fifth leader recording and, as even the notoriously self-critical drummer surprisingly says, “It is my best record yet.”

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