Curtis Nowosad

New York-based drummer, composer, and bandleader, Curtis Nowosad, has developed a reputation as a highly-skilled, versatile, and forward-thinking musician. A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Curtis became recognized as one of the faces of the new generation of jazz players in Canada, and he has performed with such world-class jazz musicians as Philip Harper, Donny McCaslin, Stefon Harris, Miguel Zenón, and Steve Wilson. He has performed with two NEA Jazz Masters, Candido Camero and Jimmy Owens, and recently recorded with a third, pianist Kenny Barron.

His sophomore album, Dialectics, was released in March 2015 on Vancouver-based Cellar Live Records, and features Jimmy Greene on tenor saxophone, Derrick Gardner on trumpet, Steve Kirby on bass, and Will Bonness on piano. It was recently named one of “Fourteen jazz CDs to look forward to in early 2015” by Peter Hum at the Ottawa Citizen, and received 4 1/2 stars in the April issue of DownBeat Magazine. His debut album, The Skeptic & the Cynic, released in late 2012, spent two weeks at #1 on the !earshot Canadian Jazz Charts. The album showcases Curtis' arrangements of contemporary pop material such as Bob Marley and Michael Jackson, along with his quintet and special guest and two-time Grammy nominee Taylor Eigsti on piano.

Curtis has performed on many high-profile stages, including New York jazz clubs Smalls, Smoke, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and several Canadian jazz festivals. A recipient of several awards and scholarships, Curtis recently performed at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, as a winner of the Keep an Eye Jazz Award. He has twice been selected to participate in the Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead residency at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and in 2012, he attended the Jazz Workshop at the Banff Centre. He is currently a Fellow of the Jazz Institute at Manhattan School of Music, where he is a student of John Riley, and performs with the multi-Grammy nominated MSM Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, directed by Bobby Sanabria; he holds a Bachelor of Jazz Studies from the University of Manitoba, where he mentored with master drummers Terreon Gully and Quincy Davis.