++ SERIAL DIGITAL ALBUM IN 5 WEEKLY INSTALLMENTS ++
The entire album is now online! 2 tracks were released every Monday for 5 weeks from Oct 4 - Nov 1, 2021. Unadulterated trumpet & drums duo tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10. Remix tracks: 2, 4, 6, 8.
Lina Allemano, trumpet & Nick Fraser, drums + Remix artists from New York City, Berlin & Toronto: Mira Martin-Gray, Bryan Qu, Karen Ng, Nick Dunston.
1. ORANGE 04:38
2. Brass Slippers 03:59
3. Other Ways (number one) 04:05
4. Inorganic 04:28
5. LEMON 05:17
6. Linick 2.0 05:00
7. Deadly Night Shade 04:37
8. A Bashful Droid 05:54
9. LIME 04:33
10. Other Ways (number two) 04:05
Lina Allemano, trumpet
Nick Fraser, drums
Mira Martin-Gray, remixing (track 2)
Bryan Qu, composer/producer (track 4)
Karen Ng, sax/synth/processing/editing (track 6)
Nick Dunston, prepared banjo/processed samples/hacked tape cassette player (track 8)
Produced by Lina Allemano & Nick Fraser
Trumpet & drums recorded by Fedge at Union Sound Company in Toronto on Jan 15, 2021
Remix tracks contain recorded materials from this same studio session
Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 mixed by Fedge
All tracks mastered by Fedge
ORANGE, LEMON, & LIME composed by Lina Allemano (SOCAN)
Other Ways (number one) & Other Ways (number two) composed by Nick Fraser (SOCAN)
Deadly Night Shade composed by Lina Allemano & Nick Fraser (SOCAN)
Brass Slippers composed by Mira Martin-Gray (SOCAN)
Dan Pitt is a guitarist, composer, educator and improviser. As an active member of Toronto’s jazzmand creative music scene for the past several years, Pitt has played guitar in a variety of bands with the likes of Dave Young, Pat Collins, David Braid, Terry Clarke, Terry Promane, Tim Berne, and Michael Attias. He has also worked and recorded with Harrison Vetro, Lina Allemano, Nick Fraser and Andrew Downing. His first two records as a leader - the trio outing Fundamentally Flawed and the solo recording Monochrome - were critically lauded, establishing Pitt as an exciting young voice on the creative music scene.
Wrongs - Pitt’s third release as a leader - is easily his most ambitious work yet.
With Wrongs, Pitt expands on his creative vision, adding a tetrad of woodwinds into the mix. For this recording, Pitt enlisted bassist Alex Fournier and drummer Nick Fraser - both of whom play in Pitt’s trio - while also adding the sounds of Naomi McCarroll-Butler on bass clarinet and alto sax as well as Patrick Smith on tenor and soprano saxophones.
The compositions featured on this album were written over the course of the last several years, and serve as a vehicle for the band to take in whatever direction they want, as far out as they want to go. From the ambient wash of Hunter’s Dream to the aggressive bite of the title track, this music offers a broad range of sounds and textures that further demonstrate Pitt’s ability to create music that isn’t constrained by the limits of any style or genre.
Prologue is the first release from Canadian bassist, Mark Godfrey. An EP consisting of four compositions and one solo piece, the album features fellow Toronto-based musicians Allison Au on alto saxophone, Chris Pruden on piano, and Nick Fraser on drums. This release is an introduction to Mark's work as a composer and bandleader. Venturing away from his role as co-leader and bassist in the contemporary jazz group, Pram Trio, Prologue encapsulates Mark's new direction as an artist. This EP is about transitions. Prologue delves into the experience of leaving what is familiar and returning to discover that something left behind was more important than you realized. Since 2016, this quartet has been performing live concerts exclusively in Toronto. Prologue was recorded within months of the ensemble's first few shows and gives listeners a raw look into their early development. The music on this EP was inspired by and pays homage to the African-American jazz tradition, rhythmic concepts from South America, and Western Classical melody and harmony. For nearly two years, the music of Prologue was shelved as Mark debated releasing it as an EP or as part of a full-length album. As the group performed more frequently in 2017, it became clear that there was a shift from the music documented during the 2016 session at Inception Sound Studios. Nevertheless, in January 2018, Mark decided that he would revisit the recordings and release them later that fall. With the help of engineer David Hermiston, Prologue was completed in August 2018. This album is acoustic-instrumental jazz. Dig in and enjoy where the compositions and improvisations take you.
Mark Godfrey - Double Bass and Compositions
Allison Au - Alto Saxophone
Chris Pruden - Piano
Nick Fraser - Drums
Recorded September 23rd, 2016 at Inception Sound Studios in Toronto, Canada.
Engineered, Mixed, and Mastered by David Hermiston.
JUNO-nominated Canadian jazz quartet, Peripheral Vision launches their fourth album, More Songs About Error And Shame. "A rules-breaking quartet made up of some of the best modern players around" (CBC), Peripheral Vision extends their no-holds-barred performance aesthetic into the production concept on this album. Once again, they have teamed up with mad-scientist engineer, Jean Martin (Barnyard Records) to orchestrate a bigger sound for the record, adding layers of overdubs and studio treatments to the live-off-the-floor recordings. Peripheral Vision has always been a live show band, and the seven new Herring and Scott originals on More Songs About Error And Shame show what can be gained from years of touring, including three recent tours throughout Europe as well as many trips across Canada.
Co-leaders Michael Herring (bass) and Don Scott (guitar) delve into their own neurotic psyches, finding inspiration not only in music, but also in art, literature and standup comedy. The album title is a reference to the iconic album by famously neurotic band, Talking Heads, and this cross genre nod is indicative of how they like to mix genres and themes, blending classic and modern jazz, the rock music of their youth, and non-musical influences such as the Catalonian artist Miró, and British comedian Stewart Lee.
This is a working band with a long-time rapport - Herring and Scott have been joined by drummer Nick Fraser and tenor saxophonist Trevor Hogg since the band’s inception in 2008. Peripheral Vision is fuelled by this long-time musical friendship, bringing years of tour van talks about music and life to the stage and studio, and this dynamic group interaction creates the provocative sound of More Songs About Error And Shame.
1. The Blunder 08:02
2. Syntax Error 07:40
3. "And the metaphysical concept of shame." 07:46
4. Portrait of a Man in a Late Nineteenth-Century Frame 05:57
What do Anthony Braxton, Wynton Marsalis, William Parker and Dave Liebman have in common? The fact that they have played with a drummer from the Toronto jazz scene, Nick Fraser, one of those few cases of a musician so flexible that he can practice all the tendencies of this music. Or, when he is the band leader and composer, chooses to cross those different styles, as that combination enables his capacities to swing and to color, to control time and to design textures. Generally, you either shine in one domain or the other, but not Fraser, preferring small gestures instead of technically exhibitionist actions and always committing to the kind of improvisation that has a sense of natural, moment to moment form. He has found a soul mate in Tony Malaby and if their previous partnerships were already gems of contemporary jazz, the new “Is Life Long?” has all the ingredients to convince you to take this record to your hidden island. One of them is the way Andrew Downing’s cello combines either with Malaby’s saxes, amplifying the melodic effect, or with the double bass of Rob Clutton, for a richer harmony. The others are on the CD for you to find…
In this exciting, two-night presentation (May 4 and 5), Nick Fraser celebrates the release of two CDs: Too Many Continents with the Nick Fraser Trio, and Starer with the Nick Fraser Quartet.
For his Quartet, Nick is joined by New York-based saxophonist Tony
Malaby, Andrew Downing on cello and Rob Clutton on bass; his Trio
features Mr. Malaby and New York-based pianist Kris Davis - two of the
world’s best in the field of avant garde jazz. While the music of both
the Nick Fraser Quartet and Trio is largely based in the tradition of
“free" jazz, it also draws from the entire tradition of jazz and from
the musicians' diverse experiences in improvised music, world music,
folk, and notated music.
The Nick Fraser Quartet has been together since 2012, recording two albums (Towns and Villages and the forthcoming Starer),
and touring in Canada and the United States. The Nick Fraser Trio is a
newer group featuring compositions by the leader and improvised pieces
by the trio; they released their debut, Too Many Continents on the Portuguese Clean Feed Records label in 2015.
Nick Fraser has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new
jazz and improvised music community for over twenty years. He has
performed with a veritable "who's who" of Canadian jazz and improvised
music and with such international artists as Tony Malaby, Donny
McCaslin, Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton and David Binney. Nick's
recorded works as a leader include Owls in Daylight (1997) and Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it (2004), Towns and Villages (2013) and Too Many Continents
(2015). For ten years, he co-led the group Drumheller, who released
four critically acclaimed recordings. Other projects that occupy Nick
regularly are Peripheral Vision, the Ugly Beauties (with Marilyn Lerner
and Matt Brubeck), and the Lina Allemano Four. "Fraser not so much plays
the drums as hurls himself whole body and soul against skin and
metal... truly talented." -Bill Stunt, CBC Radio.
