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For the full story pick up the March Issue of The Atlanta goodlife Magazine.





Signature Style: Sandra Foster



Professor Sandra Foster is an avid reader. By day, she’s consumed with dissertations, theses, term papers and articles. But when the 57-year-old educator straps on her guitar, she transforms into a blues bassist although she can’t read a single page of sheet music. “Every New Year’s resolution is ‘I’m going to learn to read music,” quips Foster.



The small obstacle has not deterred Foster since she first began playing bass at 50. Since learning the instrument by playing chords and sitting in on gigs around Atlanta, Foster has become somewhat of a mainstay on the local music scene. Playing often at such venues as Two Urban Licks, Maddy’s and Fat Matt’s, the Clark Atlanta University (CAU) professor likes to involve the audience in her shows. “We’re an interactive band so we pull people from the audience to play and sing with us,” explains Foster. The practice isn’t always prudent. She recalls an incident when a man from the audience, who was smitten by her bass playing, rushed the stage in groupie fashion and began fondling her.



“I grew up with seven brothers, so I’m used to being protected by men. The guys in the band rushed the man and ‘handled’ him,” says Foster. “He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to do something like that, but he just seemed possessed by the music.”



Foster also claims to be possessed with music, which might explain her commitment to the art. Foster’s band, Sana, has released three CDs, and she has plans to build a music studio in her home. Even though she’s busy teaching several courses in social policy at the master’s level and for Ph.D. programs at CAU, Foster still manages to play one gig a week in addition to weekly rehearsals. “You’ve got to touch your instrument every day,” Foster notes. “You have to bond with it. Now I understand why men name their guitars after women.”



For the full story pick up the March Issue of The Atlanta goodlife Magazine.

Nov/Dec 2003 / Volume 8 / Issue 4 / ISSN 1531-7676
THE 2003 BLUES CHALLANGE was held once again at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Buford Highway in Atlanta GA. The SaNa Blues Band, sponsored by Liz and Lee's Live, was second to perform. They put on quite a show featiring many of SaNa's original songs. Although SaNa did not win the competition, Atlanta Blues Society Co-President, Bill Hudson, was overheard saying how impressed he was with how far SaNa has come since starting her musical career only 4 short years ago.

Clark Atlanta Magazine. Spring 2001. Clark Atlanta University
IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT. Just what happens when the faculty leave their offices, classrooms, and laboratories? Do they go home and participate in even more scholarly activity? Are they surrounded by extensive, mahogany-lined librairies with ladders to reach ceiling high collections of books? Maybe they host evening discussion groups in rooms filled with sweet, cherry aroma pipe tobacco? Isn't that what they are suppose to do? After all, aren't professors and scientists basically stodgy workaholics? What exactly do they do?

Well, they do a variety of things. Recently, I received a call from some alumni that had attended an event the evening before. They were really enjoying themselves and listening to James Brown's band perform whem they thought they recognized the bass player as a CAU faculty member. Still, they weren't quite certain. It is sort of like going to the grocery store and unknowingly passing someone that you actually work alongside on a daily basis. What happens is that we become conditioned to seeing someone in a particular light. Then, when we cross paths with them in a different setting, they become almost invivible to us. Well, this was the same type of situation with the band because the bass player was indeed Dr. Sandra Foster.

Several summers ago, Foster decided to try something different and taught herself to play the bass. What she found out was that once she gained her confidence, she was a natural. Now she is a regular on the Atlanta blues scene, performing as a member of the Deacon Blues Band and as a guess musician and vocalist with various other groups, including the band of the Godfather himself, James Brown.

Thursday February 24, 2000 City Life Section
FORMING A BAND BEATS SOLO PRACTICE. She's a graduate social work teacher by day, but by night SaNa Foster has them groovin' to the sounds of her cool bass guitar and the SaNa Blues Band. Listening to her, it's hard to believe the West Ender has been playing for only two years.
"As a teacher, I have the summers off, and two years ago, I decided to either learn a foreign language or the bass," said Foster, a teacher at Clark Atlanta University. "I didn't want to go to class every day, so I went with the bass. I've always loved it: it's what I hear first."
To keep in top form, Foster knew she would have to commit to rehearsing and playing regularly. "What better way to play regularly than to have your own band?" she said. "We rehearse once a week, and that's helped me learn to play fast."
Catch the band, along with Deacon Blues on harmonica, Friday at the Rib Shack Blues Cafe on Lawrenceville Highway. For information about performances, including gigs next month at Daddy D'z and Fat Matt's Rib Shack, call 404 755-8732.

Thursday September 6, 2001 Southside Notes
LUNCHING WITH THE BLUES Sana Blues band, headed up by bassist and lead singer, Sandra "SaNa" Foster, with Vincent Washingtomn on guitar, performs original songs written by Foster and old-time blues favorites to an appreciative audience in Woodruff Park as part of the Montreux Atlanta Music Festival. This was one in a series of free lunchtime concerts during the festival.

June 6, 2002
JAZZ WEST END AND JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION - June 14th
The Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center of African American Art will be hosting this exciting celebration on June 14th from 7 - 11 PM at the Hammonds House Galleries located at 503 Peeples St. This year's theme is "Singing the Blues," which features the music of The SaNa Band. Don't miss it! Advance single tickets: Lawn seating $20.00, Table seating $25.00, at the door: lawn seating $25.00, Table seating $30.00. For tickets and directions call 404 752-8730

The 7th Annual African American Families Conference.

Surviving and Thriving in a Changing World: Impact on Afrivcan American Families and Communities:

Dr. Foster will present a workshop on the 'Healing Properties of Artistic Expression' from 10:45 AM to noon on Friday April 22, 2005 in Room 143 of the Tate Student Center. The arts are an important form of expression for the African American community. Attendees will learn creative ways to incorporate the arts into practice with children and families.