Curtis Nowosad

Curtis Nowosad (MM ’15) is a JUNO-nominated, NYC-based jazz drummer, composer, educator, producer and recording artist. 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’ most recent release is an EP on La Reserve Records 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 in 2022 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 Masters of Music from Manhattan School of Music, where he currently serves on the Precollege jazz faculty.