225BatonRouge.com

“We give each other the eye,” says Michael Foster, a veteran of jazz sousaphone and upright bass. “After a show where we really hit on a groove, on something new, we’ll give each other a look that says ‘Man, that was some bad stuff.’”

Jazz is more like philanthropy than any other style of music, and not only because the dainty jazz trio remains the band-of-choice for non-profit festivities. Jazz takes strict dedication and a willingness to give with little or no recognition. And like charitable giving, it can be somewhat unpredictable and messy around the edges. For Michael Foster, first among equals in the Michael Foster Project, improvisational jazz and philanthropy marry well in his Save the Music program.

The MFP Save the Music program finds sponsors who will rent or buy instruments for children whose parents can’t afford to buy them.

Since 1997 VH1’s Save the Music Foundation has affected the lives of more than 800,000 public school students through $34 million in new musical instruments provided to more than 1,400 schools. Foster consulted VH1 on how best to start his own foundation for the Baton Rouge area.

“He’s the kind of person that activates a cultural community,” says Derek Gordon, executive director if the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. “If not for people like Michael, even more kids would be bereft of experiencing music and the arts. If we don’t invest in children now, we’ll reap the negative dividends later.”

Having taught music in area public schools since 1992, Foster has seen the need for Save the Music firsthand. “Programs and funding for music classes have been cut from public schools,” he says. “I was at festival a while back, and when the show was over, one mom had to drag her daughter away from the instruments. She was that excited. I thought, ‘I wish I could rent this kid an instrument for a year.’”

The look of enthusiasm in that young girl’s eyes must have reminded Foster of his own early passion for becoming a musician, an interest that went unquenched for years. Foster grew up in the Dallas projects, in a neighborhood he says was too dangerous to stay home, even with a babysitter.

In third grade he and his brother, Keith, were shipped to New Roads to live with their grandmother. A few years later they returned to Dallas to a safer neighborhood with their parents. Keith Foster picked up the tuba but put it down just as quickly. Despite his protests, Michael Foster’s parents thought if they bought him an instrument, it would be collecting dust just a few months later.

Forced to make do with a beat-up tuba at his public high school, Foster became proficient quickly. By his senior year, he was arranging his own songs. He tried out for the Southern Jaguar band on that rickety public school tuba, leaks and all. But he earned the scholarship, and it was his return to the Baton Rouge area for Southern University that most affected his current musical direction.

As a Jag, Foster studied under the late Alvin Batiste, Frank Chemy and Isaac Gregs, and really learned to dig New Orleans-style jazz. He also met like-minded players, guys like BRCC music director Eric Baskin and Terence Higgins of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, with whom he still performs today.

Since SoGo Live closed its doors late last year, the Michael Foster Project has maintained a Wednesday night residency at Chelsea’s Café and a regular Tuesday happy hour set at the Hilton Capitol Center.

Lively, free-spirited and largely improvisational, these gigs are far removed from the solo bass performances he started out with a decade ago at M’s Fine & Mellow Café.

Foster has learned a lot since then. His love for improvisational jazz, the playful building of grooves on a deep bass line, noodling riffs behind a solo and vaulting counter melodies to the rafters, is now matched by the thrill of introducing youth to a creative outlet through music. The Arts Council just awarded him its prestigious Arts Ambassador’s Established Artist Award for the community work he is doing.

“When you meet a kid and see them take from you, learn and develop it, that’s the most rewarding thing,” Foster says. “The power of what music can do—that’s what I love about teaching.”

michaelfosterproject.com.