Leroy Foster (musician)

Foster died of a heart attack in Chicago, Illinois in 1958, at the age of 35; alcoholism may have been a factor leading to his early death. He was buried at Fern Oak Cemetery in Griffith, Indiana. In 2012 the Killer Blues Headstone Project, a nonprofit organization, placed a headstone on Foster's unmarked grave. As of 1973, there was only one known photograph of Foster.

After signing with Parkway, Foster left Waters's band, possibly in the hope of a solo career resulting from the Parkway releases, but the label soon folded. Foster recorded two further sessions for J.O.B. in 1951 and 1952; only the first of these resulted in the release of a single.

Foster's first recordings were made, as a sideman, with the pianist Lee Brown in 1945 for J. Mayo Williams's Chicago label. In 1946, he took part in another session with Brown; the same year he also recorded for Columbia backing James "Beale Street" Clark and Muddy Waters, although only the sides by Clark were issued at the time. He accompanied Sunnyland Slim on a 1947 or 1948 session for the Opera label. Further recordings followed, under his own name for Aristocrat Records and J.O.B. Records and also backing Sunnyland Slim, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and the pianist Johnny Jones, before his most notable session, for the Parkway label in 1950.

Foster was born in Algoma, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago in the mid-1940s and by 1946 was working with the pianist Sunnyland Slim and the harmonica player John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. He was introduced to the singer and guitarist Muddy Waters by an acquaintance Waters met at a recording session in 1946. Foster was soon playing guitar and drums in Waters's band, along with the guitar and harmonica player Jimmy Rogers. The band was later joined by Little Walter on harmonica. Calling themselves the Headhunters, the trio was known for going from club to club and “cutting” (i.e., engaging in musical duels with) other bands.

"Baby Face" Leroy Foster (February 1, 1923 – May 26, 1958) was an American blues singer, drummer and guitarist, active in Chicago from the mid-1940s until the late 1950s. He was a significant figure in the development of the postwar electric Chicago blues sound, notably as a member of the Muddy Waters band during its formative years.