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Baker's Dozen

Top Brass: Theon Cross' Baker's Dozen
Stewart Smith , October 4th, 2023 08:19

Ahead of a special performance at Kings Place’s Luminate festival later this month, London jazz outlier Theon Cross takes Stewart Smith through his 13 favourite records, from Stevie Wonder to Kano via Miles Davis and Lauryn Hill

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Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly

I think it's one of the best albums to come out of the 2010s. And again, he’s speaking to the world as he sees it, politics and things like that, but also, speaking to his own people, his hood, his experience, his family, and it’s what's directly in front of him. And yeah, it slaps! I remember being on the road at that time with Sons Of Kemet, and listening to it, and the effect that it had on people coming into jazz now. I think because of the influences of people like Thundercat, Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin on it, I think it really helped the non-jazz ear getting into jazz. It had a direct effect over here as we were doing our thing and emerging. I think it’s definitely one of those albums that drew people into listening to a sax solo or instrumental music. So as well as it being a very, very great album on its own merit, it's a very influential album on the way people engage with our scene or with my music.