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Curtis Nowosad

Curtis Nowosad is a JUNO-nominated, NYC-based jazz drummer, composer, bandleader and educator. Having made his home in Harlem for the last decade, the native of Winnipeg, MB, Canada has established himself as an integral part of the NYC and international jazz scene, both as a bandleader and a sideperson. 

Curtis has played in the bands of many top jazz artists of multiple generations, including Steve Nelson, Jazzmeia Horn, Philip Harper, Brianna Thomas, Craig Harris, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Marc Cary, Jocelyn Gould, Frank Lacy, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Bruce Barth, David Berkman, Andrew Renfroe and Braxton Cook, with whom he has toured extensively in Europe and North America. He has also played with four NEA Jazz Masters: Candido Camero, Dave Liebman, Jimmy Owens and Ron Carter, and recorded with a fifth, Kenny Barron. He has led bands at many notable clubs and festivals, including The Blue Note, The Jazz Standard, Smalls, Dizzy’s and every major jazz festival in Canada and several in the US.

Curtis’ forthcoming release is an EP featuring his working trio—Andrew Renfroe on guitar and Luke Sellick on bass—interpreting the music of Sam Cooke, Glen Campbell, Stevie Wonder and Nick Drake, entitled If I Had. The foundation for this current release was laid with three albums and an EP: his debut The Skeptic & the Cynic—which topped Canadian Jazz radio charts and featured Grammy-winning pianist Taylor Eigsti and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Jimmy Greene—the WCMA-winning and JUNO-nominated Dialectics—which made Downbeat Magazine’s “Best of 2015” list (****1/2), reached #3 on the CMJ jazz charts and spent ten weeks on the JazzWeek charts—and his critically acclaimed eponymous third album, a groundbreaking jazz and blues driven collection upon which he emerged as a powerful musical force for social justice. A companion remix project, titled CNRMXD, was released last year and features remixes by nine celebrated producers from the USA, Canada and Europe, including Jesse Fischer, Gengis Don, d.boom, Efajemue, and others, along with guest vocalists Michael Mayo, Brianna Thomas, Alina Engibaryan, Austin Antoine and JSWISS. 

Curtis holds a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music, where he previously served on the Precollege jazz faculty.


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9
Album Review

David Ecker: Respite (Despite)

Read "Respite (Despite)" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The Covid pandemic has been educational. One of its lessons is (to paraphrase a famous movie): music finds a way. If getting together in the studio is a problem, then grab the technology and go the remote recording route. It worked for guitarist Justin Morell and drummer Mark Ferber on 2022's Exit Music For Intelligent Life On Earth (Sonic Frenzy Records), and it works for pianist David Ecker in 2023, with his sophomore outing, Respite (Despite). The recording ...

5
Album Review

Derrick Gardner & The Big dig! Band: Still I Rise

Read "Still I Rise" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Trumpeter Derrick Gardner, a Chicagoan who has performed around the world with a who's who of jazz luminaries from Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Foster to Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett and Harry Connick Jr., to name only a few, traveled to Winnipeg, Canada, to assemble and record his Big Dig! Band, several sizes removed from Gardner's sextet, The Jazz Prophets, a working group since it was formed in New York City in 1991. Gardner not only shines as trumpet ...

6
Album Review

Curtis Nowosad: Dialectics

Read "Dialectics" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While it may be tempting to simply call Dialectics a straight-ahead session, Kevin Sun's liner notes set the record straight: According to Sun, “neo-hard bop" is a more accurate term for this music. What's most important to note, however, is that the music is pretty irresistible, regardless of what you call it. On the sophomore album from Curtis Nowosad, the drummer delivers an invigorating program of music with a killer quintet born out of the Winnipeg native's ...

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2

Recording

'If I Had,' The New Ep From Juno-nominated Jazz Drummer Curtis Nowosad Drops Today On La Reserve Records—release Events At Rockwood Music Hall And Smalls Jazz Club

'If I Had,' The New Ep From Juno-nominated Jazz Drummer Curtis Nowosad Drops Today On La Reserve Records—release Events At Rockwood Music Hall And Smalls Jazz Club

Source: All About Jazz

JUNO-nominated, NYC-based jazz drummer, composer, bandleader Curtis Nowosad will release If I Had, a soul-searching record that bears a message of social justice at its core. The drummer has a gift for marrying the personal and the political — he did so to powerful effect on his self-titled 2019 release, which presented songs about civil rights activists, and on a subsequent 2022 remix album. With If I Had, Nowosad picks up right where he left off, choosing legendary songs like ...

1

Recording

New York-Based Canadian Jazz Drummer Curtis Nowosad To Launch Second Album Dialectics On March 17, 2015

New York-Based Canadian Jazz Drummer Curtis Nowosad To Launch Second Album Dialectics On March 17, 2015

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Winnipeg-raised, New York-based jazz drummer, composer and bandleader Curtis Nowosad presents his sophomore album Dialectics, a collection of dynamic and swinging original compositions by Nowosad, as well as selected interpretations of music by Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, and Mercer/Schertzinger. Dialectics is Nowosad’s debut recording on the renowned Canadian jazz label Cellar Live and will be released on March 17, 2015. The album release will be celebrated with a series of concerts and touring activities, starting with a Canadian launch event ...

Primary Instrument

Drums

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Bachelor of Jazz Studies, University of Manitoba, 2011. $40/hr

Clinic/Workshop Information

I work with small jazz ensembles, big bands, and drummers.

Music

Videos

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