Nick Fraser

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Nick Fraser is a Toronto drummer who has been active in the Toronto jazz community since 1996. He is most active in the experimental and avant-garde scene.

Career

As a teenager, he played in the band "The Spines" with violinist Pemi Paull.

Bill Stunt of CBC Radio states that "Fraser not so much plays the drums as hurls himself whole body and soul against skin and metal" and calls him "truly talented." [1] Mark Miller from The Globe & Mail states that "The young Toronto drummer is perhaps a little too progressive for the hidebound Canadian scene." Miller says "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." [2] John Kelman in All About Jazz notes that "Fraser can swing hard when necessary, but he’s equally a colorist with all manner of unusual tricks up his sleeve." Kelman specifically notes choices such as "placing cymbals on the drums and pushing on them while striking them created a sound akin to a water gongs" and playing "brushwork [that is] impeccable." [3]

The National Arts Centre of Canada states that "Fraser has performed with a veritable “who’s who” of Canadian jazz and improvised music in addition to such international artists as Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, David Binney and Donny McCaslin. Fraser has also been a steady hand for the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s renowned Jamming Series as part of the Geggie Jamming Trio."[4]

The Ottawa Citizen states that "if music is a language, then Nick Fraser is definitely speaking in a different tongue."[5] Fraser states that he likes the "...major figures of that kind [experimental jazz] music, including Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and Dewey Redman." Fraser admits that his recordings "can be an intense listen."[6] The review notes that Fraser also performs outside the avant-garde, such as with a blues guitarist and a jazz band called Peripheral Vision.[7]

Performance examples

References

  1. ↑ nickfraserthedrummer.com/bio.html
  2. ↑ nickfraserthedrummer.com/bio.html
  3. ↑ nickfraserthedrummer.com/bio.html
  4. ↑ nac-cna.ca/en/community/event/5205
  5. ↑ http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Quartet+delivers+free+form+experimental+jazz+Quartet/7884012/story.html
  6. ↑ http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Quartet+delivers+free+form+experimental+jazz+Quartet/7884012/story.html
  7. ↑ http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Quartet+delivers+free+form+experimental+jazz+Quartet/7884012/story.html
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