Audio Recon Jazz Meridian Records and Indy Hostel
present Ken Aldcroft with special guests LA Jenkins (columbus,oh) and the Neil Cain Eric Brown duo http://www.kenaldcroft.com/
The Canadian composer/improviser/jazz guitarist will make his Indianpolis debut performance at the Indy Hostel on Nov 7th With Special Guests LA JENKINS and the Neil Cain Eric Brown duo. With a rigorous and pan-idiomatic approach to both composition and improvisation, guitarist Ken Aldcroft is a key practitioner in Toronto’s dynamic creative music scene. After establishing himself as a compelling new voice in the jazz scene of his hometown, Vancouver, Ken moved to Toronto in 2001 and quickly made connections with like-minded collaborators. Since then, his own multi-faceted development as an improvising guitarist, bandleader, composer, producer, and organizer has corresponded with the re-emergence of Toronto as an important centre for creative improvised music-making. As a guitarist, Ken extends the jazz tradition that lies at the core of his music education. Through his commitment to a wide-open field of musical influence and to forging new collaborative ties, Ken has systematically sought new and challenging contexts in which to improvise. As a result, his playing reflects the breadth of his interests, from the extended bebop of a jazz repertory project like Hat and Beard to the languages of European improvisation and noise music that he explores in collective improvisation settings like Aldcroft/Oswald/Snow/Valdivia. This variety comes into its fullest view on Ken’s brand-new solo project, Vocabulary (TRP-SS01-008), a passionate musical reflection on his ongoing development as an improvising guitarist. As a bandleader, Ken’s projects have provided increasingly nuanced contexts in which his compositional and ensemble-related ideas find voice.
The evolution of the Ken Aldcroft Convergence Ensemble reflects his development in these regards as well as the expanding scope of music played by groups under his leadership. While his Group, Quartet and Trio + 1, his trio of projects during the early 2000s, synthesized models from jazz and derivative musical traditions, the Convergence Ensemble expands the frame of stylistic reference and conceptual depth considerably. Three recordings by the Convergence Ensemble, The Great Divide(2006), Trolleys(to be released December 2008), and Our Hosptality (to be released Spring of 2009), all on Trio Records, are clear testimony to this fact. Concurrent with this trajectory as a performing musician is Ken’s commitment to supporting the scene of creative music in Toronto as an organizer and producer. He was a founding Board member and the first President of the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto. AIMToronto’s formation in 2005 was instigated in part by concert and series programming that Ken had been doing with Joe Sorbara, with whom he founded the Leftover Daylight Series, a weekly series of creative music that is approaching its fifth anniversary in late 2008. Since then, AIMToronto has helped to bolster the reputation of Toronto’s creative music scene locally, nationally, and internationally. For his integral role in organizing AIMToronto collaborations with artists like Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Jean Derome, Joe McPhee, Eddie Prévost, Michael Moore, and Malcolm Goldstein, Ken has ensured that the world-class calibre of Toronto musicians has gained considerably wider recognition.
LA Jenkins http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=18050
Style of playing/ creative endeavor: modern jazz, / free improvisations, ambient/ experimental and first generation jazz/rock. L.A.’s influences and playing experience are diverse. He grew up in Columbus Ohio performing with funk and rock groups in several major market cities. L.A.’s major endeavor as an artist is first the creative style of avant-garde music. L.A. decided to play this style of music after hearing the “Art Ensemble of Chicago”, “Live in Berlin”. Sun Ra was L.A.’s, Jimmy Hendrix. Residing in the mid-west L.A. followed the prerequisite learning of popular music due to the limited access and peer instruction of creative avant-garde music. L.A. studied performance music at Eastern New Mexico University; but by his own assertion he is primarily a self taught guitarist.
L.A. has studied the “Harmolodic” approach to harmony/theory as developed and performed by Ornette Coleman. L.A. stated, that he mainly sees himself as a composer primarily and an explorer of new sounds.
The guitar is his voice for his musical expression and aspirations, and his instrument is the implementer for his musical sojourns. Over the last several years L.A. has released several CDs. Noted musical releases are: “Fade to Go”, “Unknown Man,” “Persistence of Vision”, “Momentum into Nothingness” and two new 2009 releases: “Man Danced Funny” and “Inability to Fly.” In the last few years L.A. have performed and recorded with many creative musicians and some of his major collaborators are: drummer /percussionist Ryan Jewell, bassist Tom Abbs and sound sampler /drummer Chris Murray just to highlight a few of these very creative artists. L.A. is currently in the process of working on several new projects and collaborations. These new projects are with Gary Thompson on saxophone, programmer Bryan Stewart, trumpeter Martin Ripple and multi instrumentalist drummer/synthesist Adam West.
Tags: concerts, experimental music, free jazz
