Photo by Andy Earl
Sons of Kemet’s tuba player Theon Cross has released a new solo record, which you can hear premiering exclusively on The Quietus below.
‘Panda Village’ features fellow London Jazz greats Nubya Garcia on saxophone and Moses Boyd on drums.
Carrying through the track is Cross on deep, swaggering tuba, joined later with grooving synths. It’s electrifying to hear such a masterful interplay by three musicians at the top of their game.
You can preorder the track on Bandcamp here
To find out more, tQ had a quick chat with Cross about the track:
tQ: Can you tell us more about the name of the track ‘Panda Village’?
Theon Cross: It was actually a working title. I remember at the time I was watching Kung Fu Panda 3, and the themes of oppression got me thinking about what I wanted to express on the track. I often name tracks just after stuff I’ve been thinking or talking about at the time.
The synths on the track are great – are they a new addition, how did they get into your mix of instruments?
On the track we used synths and they rewind halfway through. Moses helped me out with doing that, I think it’s important to be reflecting everything that’s going on in music now, so that when people listen back in years to come they can hear elements of that in our music too.
Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd are on the track and the album – tell us more about those working relationships.
I met Nubya through the Warriors [Tomorrow’s Warriors, a London Jazz music education organisation], and Moses I’ve known since I was a child. I’ve actually been working with them since 2014 so it’s felt very natural, and was something I’ve wanted to do while I’ve wanted to do for a while.
