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Nick Fraser
In addition, he has had the opportunity to perform with such international artists as Michael Moore, Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Joe McPhee, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bela Fleck, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Wynton Marsalis, Mick Beck, David Binney, Ray Vega, Steve Turre, Matt Welch, Bill Carrothers and Bill Mays. Nick's recorded works as a leader include "Owls in Daylight" (1997) and "Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it" (2004).
He has worked extensively with Rob Clutton and Ronda Rindone in the cooperative trio This Moment whose debut album "Beautiful Line" was released in 2002 on the 9Winds label. He also co-leads the co-operative group Drumheller with Brodie West, Rob Clutton, Eric Chenaux and Doug Tielli who released their self-titled debut CD on the rat-drifting label in 2005 and its follow-up "Wives" in 2006.
Other projects that occupy Nick regularly are The Christine Bougie Band, The Gulf Port Island Trio, the Lina Allemano 4, Deep Dark United and The Bill Grove Quartet. Nick is a founding member of The Association of Improvising Musicians of Toronto, a non-profit organisation dedicated to advocacy for the Toronto improvising community.
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Nicola Miller’s Living Things: Spit!
by Mike Jurkovic
On the street, they would say that maritime Nova Scotia's rogue saxophonist Nicola Miller's rhizome-like way with her quintet, Living Things, or her prog jazz as a concept, is “some crazy sh*#!." But it need be said nicer at a global concern like All About Jazz. For as gentlemen and even gentler ladies, we are sworn to public service and to call a spade a spade. So Spit! is a spade. Hands down. Why? Well, the crickety landslide ...
Continue ReadingNick Fraser: Still Screaming Into The Snare Drum
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, The Tonearm's needle lands on Toronto drummer and composer Nick Fraser.Nick Fraser is one of the most distinctive voices in Canadian improvised music. He has played with Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, and William Parker, and has led projects that range from raw free jazz to something much harder to name.His latest record, Areas, just dropped on Elastic Recordings. It's a trio date with saxophonist Tony Malaby and pianist Kris Davis. Electroacoustic interludes by composer John ...
Continue ReadingMal Wadron, Sam Rivers, Nick Fraser, Meredith Bates, and much more
by Lawrence Peryer
An hour of creative music where archival recordings and new releases share equal footing. Irreversible Entanglements and a newly surfaced 1984 Mal Waldron-Sam Rivers improvisation open the show; Alabaster DePlume, a Daunik Lazro-Joëlle Léandre-Paul Lovens trio, Work Money Death, and Nick Fraser carry the middle sets; and Vancouver composer Meredith Bates closes it out with music from her new album The Observer Effect. Playlist Irreversible Entanglements “Juntos Vencemos" from Future Present Past (Impulse!) 00:00 Mal Waldron & Sam ...
Continue ReadingAlbum Review
Lina Allemano: The Diptychs
by Giuseppe Segala
Di origine canadese, la trombettista Lina Allemano distribuisce la propria attività artistica tra le scene di Toronto e Berlino, manifestando significative sfaccettature di un'attitudine che spazia con spregiudicato talento in vari ambiti della musica e dell'improvvisazione di oggi. Il quartetto protagonista di questo The Diptychs è la sua realizzazione più longeva e la più prolifica in termini di CD pubblicati. Il primo documento registrato dalla formazione, uscito come tutti i suoi lavori con l'etichetta autogestita Lumo Records, risale al 2006. ...
Continue ReadingLina Allemano Four: The Diptychs
by Mark Corroto
Lina Allemano Four's The Diptychs presents three pairs of compositions, inspired by the visual art concept of placing two panels side by side. Just as diptychs in painting create meaning through contrast and dialogue, Allemano's music fashions reciprocal, interdependent sound worlds within each pair. A restless and inventive presence, Allemano splits her time between Toronto and Berlin. Trained in both classical and jazz trumpet, she leads the electric power trio Ohrenschmaus, the pseudo-psychedelic improvising quartet Titanium Riot, and ...
Continue ReadingLina Allemano Four: The Diptychs
by Troy Dostert
Maintaining its biennial release pattern going back to 2021's Vegetables (Lumo Records) and 2023's Pipe Dream (Lumo Records), The Lina Allemano Four once again strikes gold with The Diptychs, another of the group's ventures into its signature territory. With artful, multilayered themes that generate nuanced four-way dialogues, this is music born of the close collaboration that trumpeter Allemano has long championed, and her most accomplished working band is once again in top form. Built around six relatively compact ...
Continue ReadingNicola Miller: Living Things
by Mike Jurkovic
It is more than fair enough to say that Nova Scotia-based saxophonist/composer Nicola Miller's vision and understanding of things is peppered with oddly curious axioms and an astute ear for the undertow that pulls us all further out to sea or crashing into the breakers. At least that is what Living Things, Miller's first bold statement as a leader leads one to believe given the odd shapes and delineations that such serpentine wanderings of the lead-off “Barge"--its slippery, open ...
Continue Reading"The young Toronto drummer is perhaps a little too progressive for the hidebound Canadian scene... Fraser is a deft and sensitive percussionist with a hint of an enigmatic streak, a feeling for economical gestures, and an innate sense of form." -Mark Miller, The Globe & Mail
"Fraser can swing hard when necessary, but hes equally a colorist with all manner of unusual tricks up his sleeve. Placing cymbals on the drums and pushing on them while striking them created a sound akin to a water gongs
Primary Instrument
Drums
Location
Toronto
Willing to teach
Beginner to advanced
Credentials/Background
Nick has been part of the Ontario Arts Council's Artists in Education roster, conducting workshops in creative musical improvisation for Ontario High School students. He has conducted the workshop at Canterbury High School and Nepean High School in Ottawa, Oakwood Collegiate and A.Y. Jackson S.S. in Toronto, and Niagara District S.S. in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He has conducted improvisation workshops, master classes and drum clinics at universities and colleges as part of touring ensembles
Harrison Argatoff
saxophone, tenorPhotos
Music
Wrongs
From: WrongsBy Nick Fraser
Whistle up a Rope
From: Irrational Revelation And...By Nick Fraser
USS Rent-a-Car
From: Square PegBy Nick Fraser
