ken is a wonderfully gifted guitarist, composer, and improviser and a good friend. his convergence ensemble proves that mathematicians are not always correct in that, sometimes, 4+4=5. this is the amalgamation of the ken aldcroft group and the trio+1.

ken's groups cover a lot of musical ground: ken's own writing consists of very loosely composed "improv tunes", jazz heads, and through-composed pieces with complex written and improvised sections. in addition to ken's own music, the we play music by duke ellington (as recorded on ken's album "his mistress never sleeps: a tribute to duke ellington"), and pieces from miles davis' "tutu" album. we also do a lot of real time composing.

the trio +1 (with gordon allen on trumpet as the "+1"...) did a short tour out west in november 2002 and then came home to a week-long residency at toronto's top o'the senator jazz club. there was a real fire in our group playing born of our experiences on the road. from our time, a document of the music we made together, was recorded in december 2002 and is now available from trio records

the ken aldcroft group presented ken, evan and i playing with a more traditional instrumetnation with wes neal on bass. we documented the group music in march, 2003 and put out a double cd called kirby side road which is also available from trio records.

moving back to the trio +1, our good friend, scott thomson, became the "+1" early on in 2004. scott is a great trombonist and a wonderful improviser. we went out on tour together and had a great time and when we got home, ken decided to throw the two bands together and make some quintet music. that's the story and i'm sticking to it.

the first convergence ensemble recording, the great divide, was released in october 2006. we have since toured all over canada, added nicole rampersaud on trumpet, played a 2-month residency at somewhere there and spent a number of days in the studio documenting what we've found during our travels.

you can find out more about ken, trio records, and other such things on his own website.