Native Victorian Hugh Fraser has been a positive force to the beautiful world of music for over two decades. He formed the 13 member Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI) in 1980, then went on to international success with The Hugh Fraser Quintet from 1986. The Quintet tours Europe, North and South America yearly. He was voted 2008’s Canadian Trombonist of the Year by the National Jazz Awards and also received this honour in 2005, 1996 and 1998.

Hugh has recorded over one hundred of his compositions on seventeen albums as a leader. He won two Juno Awards and many nominations for these recordings, and appears on over twenty albums as a sideman including recent releases by Cuban bands Chucho Valdés and Irakere on Bembe Records, Perspectiva on Egrem Records, and Kenny Wheeler on ECM Records.

As an educator, Hugh has served as the Program Head of Jazz at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts, Head of Jazz Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, Head of the University of Ulster Summer Jazz Workshop in Ireland, and is much sought after as a guest clinician by all major progressive institutions. Hugh received an honourary Doctorate from McMaster University.

Hugh has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Jaki Byard, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, Billy Ekstein, Slide Hampton, Frank Foster, Don Thompson, Shorty Rogers, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Muhal Richard Abrams, Robin Eubanks, Dave Liebman, Sheila Jordan, and Jean Toussaint.