In my second interview with musicians performing at Cheltenham Festival, I spoke to the experimental London composer and tuba player, Theon Cross.
While Theon has been in and around jazz since primary school, he’s still a young guy at just 33. Musically, however Theon’s work is way beyond his years showing an undoubted maturity and intelligence.
His latest album, Affirmations (2025) recorded live at The Blue Note (New York) is an astounding 12 track project. Soaring soundscapes, created by his talented band; Isaiah Collier Chicago-based saxophonist, James Russell Sims a Chicago drummer and Nikos Ziarkas a London-based guitarist. Theon Cross in turn skilfully makes an instrument which looks cumbersome (in my ignorant view) seem anything but that. I kid you not I really did play this album on repeat for a full day.
In the lead up to his performance, we had a quick chat about a few things.
Oh, by the way, Theon has two tubas-he calls them affectionately Yams and Bessi.
It’s the lineage and we exist because the foundations were laid for us. So, there is a sense of a renaissance but so much of music is about community
Briefly discuss how you got into playing brass instruments?
I started in primary school my parents signed my older brother and I for brass lessons. But I did not necessarily enjoy it at first. It was only it my secondary school. As I got older, I started to grade with bigger instruments.
And did family impact you?
My father played bass before he passed away but I was always connected to the sub frequencies from a young age. My dad played reggae in the 80’s and we had a lot of the dub vinyls here, lots of Studio 1 stuff. I used to play a lot of music from the small islands and music from African countries too.
Any other people who helped you as a young musician?
A musician called Andy Grappy a tuba player and a member of the Jazz Warriors in the early 80’s recommended a summer school called Kinetika Bloco. It was an amazing place where musicians like Michael Kavuma, Nubya Garcia, Sheila Maurice Grey (Kokoroko), Femi Koleoso (Ezra Collective) and more learnt their trade.
I was talking to Camilla George who highlighted Tomorrow’s Warriors-I did not know about Kinetika Bloco talk a bit about this place?
It was place where we learnt music through the summer, made costumes, and then performed at Notting Hill Carnival. When I was going through my grading system I was focusing more on classical music and repertoire, but what was significant about Kinektica Blocka is it featured music from the black diaspora. I grew to love music from names like Sun Ra and Duke Ellington while fully appreciating genres like sound system culture. It was here that I really got into jazz. As an organisation they really focused on kids and teenagers with varied abilities: it was a very inclusive. It was a great place. For those who were more focused on becoming professional jazz musicians, it was a place a natural progression to eventually go down the conservatoire route.
People feel a tuba and you cannot ‘unfeel’ that force from tuba.
Love the idea of people like Andy Gruppa, a musician supporting young talent?
Absolutely! Uk jazz with all the new ‘crop’ so to speak like Camilla, Nubya, Ezra Collective. We are seeds sown by these great names. I was inspired by people like Abram Wilson, Soweto Kinch, Shabakya and many more.
The current UK jazz scene-is it a renaissance in your eyes?
It’s the lineage and we exist because the foundations were laid for us. So, there is a sense of a renaissance but so much of music is about community and us having strength among our self and creating the infrastructure within our community. I think the jazz industry hasn’t always recognized the achievements of these great names.
It’s a great time for the ‘new crop’ so to speak?
It is but we have come up at a time where we can really broadcast ourselves. It’s helpful because we do not have to rely too much on the media. We are privileged to have the technology to broadcast our talents. The support from those founding musicians has been so important to the popularity of UK Jazz right now.
So, let’s get to the tuba. It’s not always the poster instrument so to speak but the sound is so distinctive.
Tuba is special because it is a bass instrument powered by my breath. Everyone relates to bass and the tuba is significant because you are feeling that frequency from a human breath. People feel a tuba and you cannot ‘unfeel’ that force from tuba. Tuba is not used as much as it should be, but Miles Davis made a real point of using the Tuba in his compositions Miles Davis and Gil Evans with The Birth of Cool (1957).
Lovely segue-you are playing Cheltenham Festival where they will celebrate a100 years of Miles Davis!
Funnily enough when I was studying at the Guildhall, I had a chance to play these arrangements and so it really gave me a sense of the talent of Miles Davis. It will be great to play there again as I played there a while back. Cannot wait to play my latest album Affirmations to a big audience.
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