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Theon Cross
Theon Cross Interview
by Steven Roby
This episode features an interview with award-winning tuba player and composer, Theon Cross. We discussed his music and talked about his upcoming show at Dazzle. Cross is a key component of London's thriving jazz scene, and his unique sound has been described as innovative" and hailed for reinventing the tuba." His debut EP Aspirations" brought him international attention and garnered him a Jazz FM nomination for Best Jazz Newcomer in 2016. In 2019, he released his debut album ...
read moreKinetika Bloco: Legacy
by Chris May
Legacy features some of the London jazz scene's leading players, among them tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, trumpeters Claude Deppa, Mark Kavuma and Sheila Maurice-Grey, trombonist Nathaniel Cross and tubaist Theon Cross. As you would anticipate, there is much great jazz to be heard on the album, and along the way it bears witness to community spirit and the power of music to do good. It was recorded to celebrate the achievements of the music charity Kinetika Bloco ...
read moreTheon Cross: Intra-I
by Chris May
A member of tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings' Sons Of Kemet since 2015, tuba player Theon Cross released his first full-length album, Fyah (Gearbox), in 2019. Most of it was performed by a trio comprising Cross, tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia and drummer Moses Boyd, augmented on two tracks by other luminaries of the alternative London jazz scene. Fyah was one of the most fresh hewn and fun albums to come out of London in 2019. Cross' second album, ...
read moreOn Our Own Clock: On Our Own Clock
by Chris May
The fourteen-strong international ensemble which recorded On Our Own Clock includes, from London, keyboard player Danalogue from Shabaka Hutchings' The Comet Is Coming and tuba player Theon Cross from Hutchings' Sons Of Kemet; from Dakar, percussionist Yahael Camara Onono and kora player Tarang Cissoko; and, from Johannesburg, keyboardist Zoe Molelekwa, bassist Tebogo Sedumede, trombonist Siya Makuzeni and drummer Asher Gamedze.The original plan for the album, back in 2019, was to get the musicians together in London and record ...
read moreSons of Kemet: Black To The Future
by Chris May
Sons Of Kemet is led by tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Shabaka Hutchings who, though he is far too modest to make any such claim himself, is the de facto standard-bearer for the new wave of musicians who have emerged on the London jazz scene since around 2015. The band is one of three Hutchings either leads or co-leads which are signed to Impulse!. The other two are the cosmic-fusion trio The Comet Is Coming and Shabaka & The Ancestors, ...
read moreMoses Boyd: Dark Matter
by Chris May
As half of the ferocious semi-free duo Binker and Moses with tenor saxophonist Binker Golding, and with a string of guesting and producing credits of biblical proportions, drummer Moses Boyd is among the most prominent of the cohort of London rebels who are reinvigorating British jazz. He emerged, alongside Golding, in singer Zara McFarlane's band in 2015, going on to produce her sublime jazz / reggae set Arise (Brownswood, 2017). He has released three albums with GoldingDem Ones (2015), Journey ...
read moreTheon Cross: Fyah
by Chris May
Over the last two years years the disruptive slice of the London jazz scene has produced an abundance of four-going-on-five-star albums, but even among such company Fyah stands out. Performed by a tuba, tenor saxophone and drums trio, augmented on two tracks, it is a work of majestic proportions, the embodiment of the neoteric London sound. Hear it and believe. Fyah is the first long-form own-name release by London tuba player Theon Cross, a member of saxophonist ...
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