A genuine gentlemen and a professor of bass: those were the two phrases one’s mind evoked during any communication with the great Mo Foster who passed away today at the age of 78 after a brief, if fierce, fight with cancer. A player whom everybody heard, often without knowing his name, Mo’s musical expertise seemed immense, Foster’s bass cutting a deep, yet exquisite, groove on such varied platters as Frida’s “Something Going On” and “There & Back” by Jeff Beck, Phil Collins’ “Hello, I Must Be Going!” and “The Michael Schenker Group” from the band of the same nomination, Ringo’s “Old Wave” and "The Fugitive" by Tony Banks, Kenny Rogers’ “The Heart Of The Matter” and “Night Owl” from Gerry Rafferty, Sarah Brightman’s “I Lost My Heart To Starship Trooper” and, of course, “Evita” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, to mention but a few.
Mo was proud of every note he played, deservedly so – last time we were in touch, in April, he sent me, unprompted, a photo from 1982 Stockholm session with Frida and Phil – all because each of those spells felt special to him. It’s difficult to imagine, then, that Foster initially planned to become a scientist, but he failed to ignore the call of music – in the veteran’s own words, “the magic of it – here is something intangible that can affect your emotions just by the sound.” And thus, from THE BASKERVILLES, whose mid-’60s recordings first captured Mo’s mighty rumble, to AFFINITY and onwards, to "In Concert" from 2021, there was no going back and no regrets.
In the company of friends – foremost, his soulmate, guitarist Ray Russell – Foster worked wonders, be it on his solo albums like "Time To Think" or collective endeavors like RMS, with Ray and Simon Phillips, and their sometime guest Gil Evans, and when Mo ventureв out from the studio to go on stage, as part of ensembles where he was one of the primary artists or backing instrumentalist for Roger Glover’s “The Butterfly Ball” and other luminaries, he never blurred into the background, at least sonically. Still, the keyword here would be “friends” – because Mo Foster was the warmest human being one could ever encounter, an intelligent conversationalist, an engaging raconteur. That’s why this loss is so painful to all those who had a privilege to know him. Rest in peace, dear friend.
