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# Hugh Fraser - Canadian Dedication
- URL: https://www.rhythmchanges.ca/hugh-fraser-canadian-dedication/
- Published: 2021-10-15T04:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-28T02:17:03.000Z
- Description: This album features the late Hugh Fraser and the Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation: VEJI, pronounced like veggie.
- Author: Will Chernoff
- Tags: Free Weekly

Two albums by the late Vancouver jazz icon Hugh Fraser (1958-2020) released to Bandcamp on October 1, 2021\. This one, *Canadian Dedication*, features Hugh Fraser and the Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI, pronounced like *veggie*).

Find the other one, [*Gastown Chronicles*, here](https://rhythmchanges.ca/hugh-fraser-gastown-chronicles?ref=rhythmchanges.ca).

[Canadian Dedication, by Hugh Fraser and VEJI9 track album![](https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0560526321_3.jpg)Hugh FraserWill Chernoff![](https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0560526321_5.jpg)](https://hughfraser.bandcamp.com/album/canadian-dedication?ref=rhythmchanges.ca)

CBC recorded the album at the Cultch in 2005.

I saw when writing that my friend [Dean Thiessen](https://rhythmchanges.ca/dean-thiessen-stranger-friends/?ref=rhythmchanges.ca) had bought the Hugh Fraser *Canadian Dedication* album on Bandcamp.

I asked him about it, loved what he wrote in response, and asked to quote him here.

“I’ve only listened through half of it. It’s like a huge turkey dinner that you need a break to let the deliciousness settle,” Dean said.

> *“It has Hugh’s wit and comedy and it sounds like a composer who trusts his band with everything. Like a professional driver in F1 or a cowboy on a bull: so much power and motion but just complete control.”*

Dean continues:

> *“There are quite a few videos of VEJI on YouTube and this band looks like a big family. And it sounds like a family. All our profs are in this band and it just shows how huge of an influence Hugh was in the Vancouver and Canadian jazz scene.”*

The song from this video, “Thank You Very Much” is the closing track on this album. Both in the video and on the album, Christine Duncan sings the vocalese-style melody.

The instrumentalists featured through the album are the musicians from *Gastown Chronicles* Campbell Ryga, Ken Lister, and Dave Robbins; plus Ross Taggart, Perry White, Bill Runge, Walter White, Vince Mai, Bill Clark, Lorae Farrell, Dennis Esson, Rod Murray, Brad Muirhead and Jack Duncan.