London based Saxophonist
Fraser Smith
Fraser Smith relocated to the Capital in 2010 and has played professionally since. With a focus on swing and the straight ahead, he channels the sound and language of the big Tenor men.
His music harkens back to the Golden ages of jazz, from 40's Kansas City through to 60's New York,
Very much a working musician, Fraser plays between 250-300 gigs a year. He has led his own band at Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express Live, The Southbank Centre, The Vortex, Jazz Bar Edinburgh, The Verdict, JazzUp!, Swansea Jazz Land, The Green Note, The Bebop Club, New Generation Jazz, Snape Maltings, and Crazy Coq's to mention just a very small handful of past gigs. He has played London, Cheltenham, Birmingham, Swansea, Brecon, Bahrain, Guadalajara and Beijing jazz festivals and regularly performs on the continent with a variety of bands and projects.
Born in Birmingham, raised between the Midlands and Wales, Fraser first picked up the sax at the age of 15. He first came to the music of Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Ike Quebec through the Woolworth's bargain bucket. After studying hundreds of these solos, he considers himself a 'practical scholar', bringing these sounds of a bygone era to a modern stage.
'Nonchalantly confident and very hard swinging' -
John Fordham, London Jazz News
'Original tunes which take the virtues of 50s and 60s hard bop and soul jazz and infuse them with a youthful enthusiasm born of the 21st century.'
Ian Mann - Jazz Man
'An 'All Star' Outfit '
David Freeman - Jazz FM
'Smith wallows in that funky Gene Ammons/Ike Quebec sound'
Lance Liddle - Bebop spoken here
'Really sunny album, uplifting, full of the joy of living'
Adult Music Podcast