Schedule
Friday, August 7 At 10 PM (Alibi)
Saturday, August 8 at 6:45 - 7:45 pm (Foundation StaGE)
With trumpeter, vocalist, composer and record producer, Theo Croker, we will behold music that is at once forward-thinking and boundary-stretching, while rooted and respectful to more traditional forms of the music. When you learn that his grandfather was trumpeter Doc Cheatham, it makes sense. From his grandfather, Theo learned the importance of melody. “My grandfather was all about melody,” he told Jazz Times. “I can remember sitting at his table with me imitating his singing ‘Okay Baby.’ And he stopped me. ‘No, no, no. You have to do that real slow,’ he said. ‘You have to relax it.’ That stuck with me. Doc was about making the sounds and the vibrations beautiful. He was such an astute original.”
That genetic memory and real-world influence is infused with Theo’s own considerable experiences on his journey. An Oberlin Conservatory graduate – where he was mentored by Donald Byrd – Theo spent seven years in China, playing residencies and honing his distinctive style. It was there he began a fruitful musical partnership with singer and past Telluride Jass Festival guest, Dee Dee Bridgewater, who produced his 2014 record, Afro Physicist.
Theo’s latest record, Dream Manifest is pulled from the pages of his dream journal. Like dreams, the record is steeped in hip-hop flavors, deeply layered, and pulsating with tension and release, ethereal compositions and vocalists who help the listener’s imagination fly. Throughout, Theo’s fluid trumpet lines stitch the ideas together, floating in and around like the shadows of dreams you remember when you arise.
