Celebrating Jazz Groups

Thank you for participating in our Jazz Appreciation Month Listener Poll…today we celebrate jazz groups. This marks the last entry in our Jazz Appreciation Month tributes and we have saved the best for last – Denver’s very own jazz group extraordinaire, Convergence!

The six members of Convergence are each acclaimed artists and master educators in their own right. Their individual backgrounds include playing with everyone from  Woody Herman and Dizzy Gillespie to Dave Matthews and Maria Schneider. Some have played in Broadway musicals, others with the New York Pops or Central City Opera. They came together in 1991 to form an eclectic, improvisational sextet; so far they have released four CDs — the newest, “I Can Be There,” has been critically acclaimed and received airplay around the world. The group has also composed for film, been on NPR, performed at three International Association for Jazz conventions, and appeared at New York’s famed Blue Note.

Despite their broad success, the group remains fully connected to Denver and Colorado, serving as “Band in Residence” for Aspen and Snowmass schools, and as faculty  for the past decade at the Colorado Conservatory for Jazz Arts camp. Band member Paul Romaine, who plays the drums, is co-founder and artistic director of the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts. This is a group of individuals who are separately and collectively committed to jazz education and to giving back. Two members teach at CU/Boulder and others teach at DU and NYU.

In addition to Romaine, the band members are Greg Gisbert on trumpet, Eric Gunnison on piano, John Gunther on sax and woodwinds, Mark Patterson on trombone and Mark Simon on bass. Convergence plays the first Friday of every month at Denver’s Dazzle Jazz Club and they are a must-see. Go to kuvo.org and, for a donation made during the station’s current spring pledge drive, you can receive free to tickets to see Convergence up close and personal.

To learn more about this local jazz group — about individual members or upcoming performance dates — go to http://caprirecords/artists/convergence. We are proud to spotlight this deserving group on the last day of Jazz Appreciation Month — but remember, at KUVO, every day is jazz appreciation day!