The Foster Music Collective

🎵 Artists Worth Checking Out — one artist every morning: an album to start with, a performance to watch. Piano · guitar · drums in Washington, DC.

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Classical musicians and jazz musicians both claim Gershwin as one of their own — which side are you on?
Photo by Carl Van Vechten.
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #GeorgeGershwin #ClassicalMusic #AmericanComposers #Piano #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: George Gershwin
Gershwin wrote Broadway hits, then premiered Rhapsody in Blue in 1924 — classical and jazz shaking hands in public. He was 25.
Start here: Rhapsody in Blue
▶ Check him out: https://t.co/UBczk9loKu

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Duke's rule: two kinds of music — good music, and the other kind. What's your good music this week?
Photo by Gordon Parks.
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #DukeEllington #Jazz #AmericanComposers #BigBand #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Duke Ellington
Washington, D.C.'s own. America's most prolific composer — thousands of pieces, a band on the road for half a century.
Start here: Ellington at Newport
▶ Check him out: https://t.co/KzCCQyvukI

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

What piece of music can make you emotional in under a minute?
Photo by Carl Van Vechten.
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #SamuelBarber #ClassicalMusic #AmericanComposers #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Samuel Barber
Barber wrote America's most famous sad piece at only 26 — the Adagio for Strings, premiered by Toscanini in 1938, our music of mourning ever since.
Start here: Adagio for Strings
▶ Check him out: https://t.co/aEgRzYcAaO

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Which Copland piece feels most like America to you?
Photo by CBS Television.
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #AaronCopland #ClassicalMusic #AmericanComposers #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Aaron Copland
He's this studio's favorite composer — the man who gave America its sound, turning folk tunes, hymns and wide-open spaces into prairie sky.
Start here: Appalachian Spring
▶ Check him out: https://t.co/ZVGy0EEEGR

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Who's the hardest-working performer today — and could they keep up with James Brown?
Photo by Heinrich Klaffs.
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #JamesBrown #Funk #Soul #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: James Brown
Everything in funk bends toward this man. He tightened R&B onto the downbeat — the One — and built the tightest band anywhere.
Start here: Live at the Apollo
▶ Check him out: https://t.co/cAvzTIt60P

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

What's the one song guaranteed to get every generation at the family cookout up dancing?
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #SlyAndTheFamilyStone Photo by Epic Records. #Funk #Soul #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Sly and the Family Stone
The first American band that looked like America — men and women, Black and white, inventing funk.
Start here: Stand!
▶ Check them out: https://t.co/2438Gaki71

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

is "September" the happiest song ever recorded?
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #EarthWindAndFire Photo by Columbia Records. #Funk #Soul #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Earth, Wind & Fire
Maurice White built the package: kalimba, blazing horns, Philip Bailey's falsetto, a rhythm section that never blinked.
Start here: That's the Way of the World
▶ Check them out: https://t.co/ft3b7iyC4m…
Settle it once and for all:

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Photo by MikaV. #Funk #Bass #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Bootsy Collins
Bootsy learned in James Brown's band as a teen, joined P-Funk, then stepped out front — and made the bass a lead singer.
Start here: Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band
▶ Check him out: https://t.co/gARp3BeNnH

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #ParliamentFunkadelic

Photo by Joe Loong. #Funk #PFunk #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Artists Worth Checking Out: Parliament-Funkadelic
George Clinton took two bands and an army of musicians and built a universe.
Start here: Mothership Connection
▶ Check them out: https://t.co/EZRuGYl1wT
If the Mothership landed in your neighborhood tonight, you getting on it?

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Photo by Mercury Records. #Funk #Soul #DCMusic

[The Foster Music Collective @TFMCollective]

Settle this: funkiest horn section of all time — Ohio Players, or the field?
#ArtistsWorthCheckingOut #OhioPlayers

And the first reply:

Photo by Mercury Records. #Funk #Soul #DCMusic

And the photo: