Ken Aldcroft Interview, Geoff Chapman, Toronto Star, Thursday November 28/2002.

TRIO + 1 GETS SEASONAL DASH

Guitarist Ken Aldcroft Leads
Senator gig begins Tuesday night

Ken Aldcroft believes in unusual instrumental combos as well as his own music.

The Vancouver-born guitarist will be leading his Trio +1 group at the Senator on Tuesday, through Dec. 8, for a warm-up week for the unit's next recording, hopefully out in the spring.

The band comprises saxophonist Evan Shaw, trumpeter Gordon Allen and drummer Joe Sorbara, so you can be sure to expect something different.

On the phone from Calgary during a western tour, Aldcroft says he tries to play music to which he'd like to listen. "It's important to keep it interesting, so there'll be some originals, some free jazz and what I call ethnic melodies, for example using scales found in eastern European and Jewish music as well as odd meters. There should be something for everyone."

"We're trying to develop a group style that involves interaction with an underlying concept of developing the composition. Although everyone solos, the band is really the featured performer. A player will solo and the others will come in, mixing it up with or without chord changes or grooves - when we get to playing that tune again I hope that everyone likes it."

Aldcroft, 33, who's been active on the Toronto scene for the past two years and also teaches guitar, is a big fan of guitarists Bill Frisell, Brad Shepik, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall and John Scofield as well as reedmen Time Berne and Ellery Eskelin, though he saves his biggest index of approval for bass legend Gary Peacock: " I wish I could have studied more with him. He embodies everything that's good in modern jazz."

The guitarist, who since holiday bonhomie approaches will be adding seasonal material to his Senator sets, also leads other combos. He has a quartet with trumpeter Kevin Turcotte, clarinetist Ronda Rindone, and bass trombonist Scott Suttie, which has among many enterprises performed his score for two Buster Keaton silent movies, Our Hospitality and The General. He also leads a group with trumpet, bass and drums which will be at the Rex in January and the McMichael Gallery in February.