southcoastukes
Well-known member
I’m writing this today to try to share a small insight into a beautiful individual who suddenly is gone.
Some of you know that our little enterprise consists of myself here in Louisiana and Omar Corrales and his family in Central America. What very few knew was that there was another contributor close by me up here.
Jimmy Foster was famous in certain circles. He built archtop jazz guitars, mainly 7 string. No one has ever done this style of instrument better than Jimmy, and I doubt anyone ever will.
He was also a well known musician here in New Orleans. He was still playing, usually duos in small venues with the likes of guitarist Hank Mackie, or University of New Orleans Marsalis Jazz Program instructor Ed Peterson on sax. With his 7-string, he didn’t need a bass player.
In a long career, he also had repaired or restored just about every kind of stringed instrument. He was the service rep for Martin Guitars in the New Orleans area, consulted with them from time to time, and received fine instruments for restoration from all over the world.
He was kind enough to help us with our project. Since Omar is a good distance away, it has been great to have a local ear to bounce things off of. The interplay between Omar and Jimmy was something to behold. On the one hand, the traditional Latin Creole craftsman who studied and apprenticed with the finest of Italy and Spain, and on the other, the self-taught New Orleans jazz man. The artist and the mechanic.
Time after time, Jimmy would shake his head and remark that Omar needed to “buy him some machines”. He couldn’t understand why anyone would take the time to do so much of the work by hand. As to the construction, he would generally start with ‘if I were him I’d build it with …”. Nonetheless, in the end, he’d always finish with “I see what he’s doing ..” and “he gets a real nice sound that way.”
Omar would think long and hard about all Jimmy’s suggestions, and though he wouldn’t take most of them, he did indeed, in a few cases, “buy him some machines”. As time passed, it was something to see the respect and admiration grow between the two. They never spoke. As Jimmy didn’t speak Spanish, nor Omar English, the messages always went through me. Nonetheless, Jimmy would ask me from time to time about what it was like “down south”. He talked about visiting Omar’s shop to show him some of his ways. Omar almost made it up here in January. He wanted to see New Orleans and spend some time with me, but I think mostly he wanted to meet Jimmy.
Sadly now, that will never happen. I got a call from a friend last night to tell me he had died Tuesday –an apparent heart attack. I had had lunch with him the day before. I called Omar with the news earlier today and he is distraught as well.
As it turns out, Jimmy’s last major piece of work will be his first real collaboration with Omar. Along with input from Kris Barnett, an innovative classical guitar builder from Atlanta, we’re doing some fine tuning on our Tenor Guitar. We’re adding a tailpiece, something new in classical construction, but which was very common on the early steel strung Tenors. We’ll also make this body with a Plectrum scale and as a Bass.
Jimmy had just completed the first batch of tailpieces, and a sample bridge. I’ll go by to pick them up from his wife next week after the funeral services. He had given me his opinion on bracing for the new arrangement, and Omar, as always, is taking it into consideration. I know Jimmy was looking forward to seeing how Omar fleshed out the rest of the build.
I’m now going to call these the “Foster Classical 4-string Guitars” in Jimmy’s honor. The thought had never crossed my mind before, because Jimmy wouldn’t have wanted it. I think, however, that his wife will be pleased.
The thing to remember most about Jimmy Foster is that his great passion was actually helping people. With his musical background, helping people in that venue was easiest. His free videos on “How to build an archtop guitar” have been seen by over 100,000 people. Nonetheless, if he could help in other ways, he would always step up. Any of his friends and neighbors can speak to his generosity after Katrina.
I know probably none of you have met Jimmy, and very few will even have heard of him. I just want you to know about him now. Here is the notice from the Times-Picayune:
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2011/04/guitar_maker_musician_jimmy_fo.html
When I first went to his website last night, I was horrified to see it gone. Fortunately it was only being worked on by Kerry Dean, the man who did the site work for Jimmy (a labor of love). It came back before I turned in, and Kerry had posted a beautiful video retrospective on the home page, focusing as much on Jimmy’s character and personality as on his work. I think anyone would both entertained and uplifted by taking a few minutes to give it a look:
http://www.fosterguitars.com/
His wife Stephan told me that Jimmy had built a small stockpile of his beautiful 7 strings, and told her that if anything ever happened to him, these would probably see her through. It was Stephan, not Jimmy, who had the serious health issues, so I hope he is right. To people who love these instruments, they are definitely collector’s pieces now.
But you might want to also listen to some of Jimmy’s music on the site. The playing is as warm and deeply felt as you would expect from such a man. I’m sure his wife would be gratified to see a little rush of CD sales, and you’ll have wonderful music made by a wonderful human being.
We’ll miss you so much, Jimmy!
Some of you know that our little enterprise consists of myself here in Louisiana and Omar Corrales and his family in Central America. What very few knew was that there was another contributor close by me up here.
Jimmy Foster was famous in certain circles. He built archtop jazz guitars, mainly 7 string. No one has ever done this style of instrument better than Jimmy, and I doubt anyone ever will.
He was also a well known musician here in New Orleans. He was still playing, usually duos in small venues with the likes of guitarist Hank Mackie, or University of New Orleans Marsalis Jazz Program instructor Ed Peterson on sax. With his 7-string, he didn’t need a bass player.
In a long career, he also had repaired or restored just about every kind of stringed instrument. He was the service rep for Martin Guitars in the New Orleans area, consulted with them from time to time, and received fine instruments for restoration from all over the world.
He was kind enough to help us with our project. Since Omar is a good distance away, it has been great to have a local ear to bounce things off of. The interplay between Omar and Jimmy was something to behold. On the one hand, the traditional Latin Creole craftsman who studied and apprenticed with the finest of Italy and Spain, and on the other, the self-taught New Orleans jazz man. The artist and the mechanic.
Time after time, Jimmy would shake his head and remark that Omar needed to “buy him some machines”. He couldn’t understand why anyone would take the time to do so much of the work by hand. As to the construction, he would generally start with ‘if I were him I’d build it with …”. Nonetheless, in the end, he’d always finish with “I see what he’s doing ..” and “he gets a real nice sound that way.”
Omar would think long and hard about all Jimmy’s suggestions, and though he wouldn’t take most of them, he did indeed, in a few cases, “buy him some machines”. As time passed, it was something to see the respect and admiration grow between the two. They never spoke. As Jimmy didn’t speak Spanish, nor Omar English, the messages always went through me. Nonetheless, Jimmy would ask me from time to time about what it was like “down south”. He talked about visiting Omar’s shop to show him some of his ways. Omar almost made it up here in January. He wanted to see New Orleans and spend some time with me, but I think mostly he wanted to meet Jimmy.
Sadly now, that will never happen. I got a call from a friend last night to tell me he had died Tuesday –an apparent heart attack. I had had lunch with him the day before. I called Omar with the news earlier today and he is distraught as well.
As it turns out, Jimmy’s last major piece of work will be his first real collaboration with Omar. Along with input from Kris Barnett, an innovative classical guitar builder from Atlanta, we’re doing some fine tuning on our Tenor Guitar. We’re adding a tailpiece, something new in classical construction, but which was very common on the early steel strung Tenors. We’ll also make this body with a Plectrum scale and as a Bass.
Jimmy had just completed the first batch of tailpieces, and a sample bridge. I’ll go by to pick them up from his wife next week after the funeral services. He had given me his opinion on bracing for the new arrangement, and Omar, as always, is taking it into consideration. I know Jimmy was looking forward to seeing how Omar fleshed out the rest of the build.
I’m now going to call these the “Foster Classical 4-string Guitars” in Jimmy’s honor. The thought had never crossed my mind before, because Jimmy wouldn’t have wanted it. I think, however, that his wife will be pleased.
The thing to remember most about Jimmy Foster is that his great passion was actually helping people. With his musical background, helping people in that venue was easiest. His free videos on “How to build an archtop guitar” have been seen by over 100,000 people. Nonetheless, if he could help in other ways, he would always step up. Any of his friends and neighbors can speak to his generosity after Katrina.
I know probably none of you have met Jimmy, and very few will even have heard of him. I just want you to know about him now. Here is the notice from the Times-Picayune:
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2011/04/guitar_maker_musician_jimmy_fo.html
When I first went to his website last night, I was horrified to see it gone. Fortunately it was only being worked on by Kerry Dean, the man who did the site work for Jimmy (a labor of love). It came back before I turned in, and Kerry had posted a beautiful video retrospective on the home page, focusing as much on Jimmy’s character and personality as on his work. I think anyone would both entertained and uplifted by taking a few minutes to give it a look:
http://www.fosterguitars.com/
His wife Stephan told me that Jimmy had built a small stockpile of his beautiful 7 strings, and told her that if anything ever happened to him, these would probably see her through. It was Stephan, not Jimmy, who had the serious health issues, so I hope he is right. To people who love these instruments, they are definitely collector’s pieces now.
But you might want to also listen to some of Jimmy’s music on the site. The playing is as warm and deeply felt as you would expect from such a man. I’m sure his wife would be gratified to see a little rush of CD sales, and you’ll have wonderful music made by a wonderful human being.
We’ll miss you so much, Jimmy!
