Hugh Fraser (musician)

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Hugh Alexander Fraser (* 26. October 1958 in Victoria , British Columbia ; † 17th June 2020 ) was a Canadian jazz - pianist , trombonist and composer .

Life

Hugh Fraser studied with Dave Robbins in Vancouver , then with Slide Hampton in New York and Kenny Wheeler in London. During his studies at the Banff Center , he worked as a teacher from 1986 and was director of the jazz program in 1991. Fraser later taught at the Royal Academy of Music , the University of Ulster , University of Victoria, and the Victoria Conservatory of Music .
At the beginning of his musical career, Fraser founded the big band Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI), with whom he performed at the Canadian Stage Band Festival in 1981 . He then worked with the Hugh Fraser Quintet , a hard bop band with which he played at Canadian and international jazz festivals. Fraser has also worked with Jaki Byard , Clark Terry , Dizzy Gillespie , Maynard Ferguson, and Billy Eckstine . In 1988 he made his debut album Looking Up with a quintet ; In 1989 the album Pas des Problèmes followed at CBC . He appeared primarily as a pianist, composer and arranger, as in the McCoy Tyner homage "Mode to McCoy".

In the 1990s Fraser worked on Kenny Wheeler's ECM album Music for Large and Small Ensembles ; In 1997 he worked with Graham Collier ( The Third Color , 1997). In 2003 he played in Slide Hampton's band ( Spririt of the Horn ).

In 2017, Fraser contracted cancer , but it continued to occur through 2019.

Honors

For two of the 17 albums that Fraser recorded under his own name, he received the Juno Award , 1989 for Looking Up and 1998 for In the Mean Time ; the album Pas de Problem was nominated for this award in 1990.

Discographic notes

  • Hugh Fraser & The Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation: VEJI Now! (1990)
  • In the Mean Time (Jazzline Records / Jazz Focus, 1997)
  • Back to Back (Jazzline / Jazz Focus, 1998)
  • Red & Blue (Boathouse Records, 2003)
  • Pas De Problemes (CBC Records, 2003)
  • Big Works (Boat House, 2005)
  • Bonehenge! (Boathouse, 2005)

Web links

Lexical entry

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jazz musician Hugh Fraser has died. CBC, June 17, 2020, accessed June 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Fraser, Hugh
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fraser, Hugh Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Victoria , British Columbia
DATE OF DEATH 17th June 2020