Playing the al fresco Ronnie Scott’s street event on 2 August – just turn up for Theon Cross and more – this live recording was made in New York when the Sons of Kemet tuba don played the New York supper club the Blue Note for the first time. The Blue Note chain, which also has a European outpost in Milan, is to open in London not far from Soho in Covent Garden – and presumably they’ll have Theon back after this stimulating show that puts the club – like so many live-in-a-club recordings – on the map for profile. The sound of real humans enjoying themselves in front of real musicians (not at all a fake Velvet Sundown made up AI band playing nowhere in front of nobody – but when it comes to streaming you can fool all of the people some of the time) is a reminder what top jazz clubs are all about, atmosphere, great music and that they are places built for memories burnt on to our imaginations for as long as we are unpropped up by daisies.
When he was a lot younger I used to often see Londoner Theon and his brother trombonist Nathaniel usually stood at bus stops with his instrument on his back in places like Dalston coming home from the Vortex as they were always going out to hear live jazz before they themselves both became name players mostly after finishing being students. Last time I heard him live was at the Great Day in London concert in 2021 which was a rewarding evening given the sheer talent spread across that stage of top London players including Theon’s Sons of Kemet gaffer Shabaka Hutchings and Camden sax star Nubya Garcia.
But to be frank while I liked early period Kemet when Oren Marshall and Seb Rochford were still in the band when Theon was there with Eddie Hick in the Shabaka set up while far more accessible and ramped up it wasn’t as interesting as some of the tuba maestro’s other work under his own name. So for instance check out Theon’s work with Tom Challenger and Cross brother Nathaniel on Spy Boy (Babel, 2013) as part of Brass Mask. Or even better hear Theon’s far more contemporary sounding album for Gearbox issued in 2020 called Fyah.
That latter album’s dribblingly absorbing Afrobeat flavoured ‘Candace of Meroe’ is to me his best composition and it’s stimulating here in the Blue Note version. Personnel in New York finds Cross with US players saxophonist Isaiah Collier whose Coltranianisms are appealing, drummer James Russell Sims and guitarist Nikos Ziarkas who reminds me favourably of Nir Felder a bit.
Tuba to be fair needs a fair amount of re-inventing to convincingly be lead instrument and not just be the beating heart of a New Orleans type band or surrogate bass in a free-jazz rip it up affair. But Cross manages to do this compositionally and he’s magnetic live given an outgoing personality (in friendly fashion with a slight laugh in his voice he tells the New York audience that he hopes they enjoy their dinner). It’s a world away from the airier but just as brilliant Nordic etherealisms of Daniel Herskedal (over in Sligo this autumn with his trio) who is the other main tuba leader to stand out in an uncrowded but fertile however differently cultivated international calibre field.
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