Theon Cross: Intra-I

A member of tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings' Sons of Kemet since 2015, tuba player Theon Cross released his first full-length album, Fyah (Gearbox), in 2019. Most of it was performed by a trio comprising Cross, tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia and drummer Moses Boyd, augmented on two tracks by other luminaries of the alternative London jazz scene.

Fyah was one of the most fresh hewn and fun albums to come out of London in 2019. Cross' second album, Intra- I, which more or less translates as "inner self" in the Queen's English, is a winner, too. It takes another deep dive into the stylistic gumbo that is the new London jazz. Whether the result is jazz or something jazz-adjacent is open to debate. Cross himself calls it Afro Diaspora Music. Whatever you call it, it is, in effect, jazz filtered through sound system culture.

The core group on Intra-I is even smaller than on Fyah, just a duo consisting of Cross and the shamanistic drummer Emre Ramazanoglu, who is already well loved in this parish for his work with the ferocious semi-free trio Ill Considered. Spoken word artists are added on five of the ten tracks, spinning conscious rap and poetry, and the closing track, "Universal Alignment," features tuba player Oren Marshall, Cross' predecessor in Sons Of Kemet.

Despite being made, in the main, by a duo, the sound of the album is large. Partly this is down to the scale of Cross' tuba, with its low-end beats and drones and multiphonics, and electronically facilitated high-end melodicism. Partly it is down to Ramazanoglu's drumming and his additional role as producer (among the mega-selling artists who have benefited from Ramazanoglu's engineering and post-production skills are Noel Gallagher, Paloma Faith, Richard Ashcroft, Lily Allen, Spiritualized and Kylie Minogue).

Intra-I cooks on a high flame pretty much throughout, with the exception of the affecting "Watching Over (Bless Up Dad)," Cross' solo tribute to his father, who passed unexpectedly in 2020, while still in his fifties. Anyone subscribing to an inclusive definition of jazz, and who believes that if you free your ass your mind will (perhaps) follow, should enjoy the heat.

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