Verified Global Musician

Nick Fraser

Nick Fraser is a Toronto drummer, composer, improviser, and bandleader whose projects connect Canadian creative jazz with international collaborators.

DrumsComposerImproviserBandleader4 current shows
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Photo source · Photo: ataelw, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Career Overview

About Nick Fraser

Fraser’s official biography dates his move from Ottawa to Toronto to 1995 and documents sustained work in the city’s jazz and improvised-music communities. It separates his leader recordings from memberships in cooperative and sideman groups.[1]

The project archive includes his own quartet and trio, the cooperative Drumheller, Ugly Beauties, Peripheral Vision, and Lina Allemano Four. Fraser’s discography provides recording-level context for those ensembles and for collaborations with musicians from Canada and abroad.[1][2]

Ensembles and Career Threads

Bands & Projects

Leader, drummer, and composer

Nick Fraser Quartet and Trio

Fraser’s official project guide distinguishes his leader groups from the cooperative ensembles in which he participates.[1][2]

Co-leader and drummer

Drumheller

The five-member cooperative released four recordings during a decade of work documented in Fraser’s biography.[1]

Drummer and improviser

Lina Allemano Four and Ugly Beauties

Fraser’s official biography lists both groups among his recurring creative-music settings while preserving their separate leadership.[1]

Selected, Not Exhaustive

Recordings to Know

1997

Owls in Daylight

Leader and drummer

Fraser identifies this recording as the earliest title in his leader discography.[1][2]

Release details

2004

Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes Are Faking It

Co-leader and drummer

The collaborative recording pairs Fraser with guitarist Justin Haynes in a project distinct from Drumheller.[1][2]

Release details

2013

Towns and Villages

Leader, drummer, and composer

Fraser’s biography names this album among his principal leader recordings and the discography supplies its project context.[1][2]

Release details

Live Calendar

Upcoming Jazz DateBook Shows

Sun, Nov 8, 5:00 PM

Mike Freedman

The Rex · Toronto

Show details

Tue, Nov 17, 9:15 PM

Brent Tanemura Trio, Polyrhymic Pulse Driven Improv Jazz

The Emmet Ray · Toronto

Show details

Tue, Nov 24, 8:30 PM

The Victor Bateman Trio

Jazz Bistro · Toronto

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Fri, Nov 27, 5:00 PM

Karl Silveira Quartet

The Rex · Toronto

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Sources

Career copy is original synthesis from the artist, label, and project sources below. Current dates come from Jazz DateBook event inventory.

  1. [1] Official biography and Toronto project history

    Nick Fraser

  2. [2] Official leader and ensemble discography

    Nick Fraser