Curtis Nowosad

Curtis Nowosad is a JUNO-nominated, NYC-based drummer, composer, bandleader and educator. Having made his home in Harlem since 2013, the native of Winnipeg, MB, Canada has established himself as an integral part of the NYC jazz scene, both as a bandleader and a sideperson.

On Curtis’ eponymous third album—released in 2019 and co-produced with acclaimed pianist Marc Cary—he emerges as a powerful musical force for social justice on a groundbreaking self-titled jazz and blues-driven collection that illuminates past and present history while creating some profound history of its own. It is his first collection to feature the explosive and intuitive chemistry of his NY-based ensemble that has held court in NYC everywhere from Smalls to the Blue Note to the Jazz Standard and full week residencies at Dizzy’s Club at JALC.

The foundation for this current release was laid with two previous critically acclaimed collections, his debut The Skeptic & the Cynic (which spent two weeks at #1 on the Canadian Jazz radio charts and featured Grammy-winning pianist Taylor Eigsti and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Jimmy Greene) and the WCMA-winning and JUNO-nominated Dialectics (Cellar Live), 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.

A remix project, titled CNRMXD, will be released in November 2022, and features remixes of all the songs on his most recent album by nine acclaimed producers from the USA, Canada and Europe, including Jesse Fischer, Jessi Lee, Gengis Don, Efajemue, and others. A trio project will be released in 2023.

Curtis has played in the bands of many top jazz artists of multiple generations, including Steve Nelson, Jazzmeia Horn, Philip Harper, Craig Harris, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Jocelyn Gould, Bruce Barth, Ed Cherry and David Berkman, as well as Braxton Cook, Brianna Thomas, Andrew Renfroe and Cary—who all make major contributions to his latest album—while headlining major jazz festivals in the USA, Canada and Europe. 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 is an endorser of Canopus Drums and holds a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music, where he previously served on the Precollege jazz faculty.