Nick Fraser’s Special Topics
October 19 & 20 @ 8:00pm
Nick Fraser - Drums
Josh Cole - Bass
Kae Murphy - Trumpet
Maxwell Stover - Saxophone
Nick Fraser’s Special Topics is a new group of established and younger musicians based in Toronto. The band is Fraser’s attempt to become “Toronto’s 21st-century Art Blakey” by fostering a spirit of mutual mentorship and multi-generational collaboration.
Nick Fraser (drums) has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community since he moved there from Ottawa in 1995. A Juno Award winner (and nine-time nominee), his recorded works include Owls in Daylight (1997), Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it (2004), Towns and Villages (2013), Too Many Continents (2015) Starer (2016) and Is Life Long? (2018), If There Were No Opposites (2021), and Farahser (2024). Nick 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, William Parker, and Ethan Iverson. "Fraser not so much plays the drums as hurls himself whole body and soul against skin and metal... truly talented." -Bill Stunt, CBC Radio.
Originally from Langley, BC, bassist, composer, and producer Josh Cole co-founded the critically acclaimed October Trio with Dan Gaucher and Evan Arntzen in 2004. Since moving to Toronto in 2010 Josh has worked with Colin Fisher, Brodie West, Nick Fraser, Ryan Driver, Robin Dann (Bernice), Thom Gill and Prince Nifty amongst others. “Cole can be coolly lyrical, he can write a controlled “classical” counterpoint, he can drop in some funk, and he can also let the improvisers loose in the stratosphere.” -Popmatters.com
Kae Murphy (they/him) is a Grammy-nominated trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist originally from Owen Sound, ON. Now based in Toronto, they have been touring worldwide with groups such as BADBADNOTGOOD, Whitney, and the Generations Unit, playing venues such as the Blue Note NY, Newport Jazz Festival, and Coachella Valley Music Festival.
Maxwell Stover is a saxophonist. He also plays flute. He is living in Toronto. And he usually is making music about things he thinks are beautiful or terrible. For example, plastic. Or else maybe fruit. Oh! —usually Maxwell speaks out of the traditions of jazz. Or outsider music. Usually with others he is grateful to be sharing space with.