Long underrated as a jazz instrument, the tuba has come back into favour in recent years sparked by a brass-band revival in New Orleans and the innovative approaches of master musicians like Jose Davila, Oren Marshall and Jon Sass. Leading this new generation is Theon Cross, the London-based musician and composer perhaps best known as a member of the now-disbanded Sons Of Kemet, whose radical fusion of African-Caribbean music, grime and jazz shook Edinburgh International Festival to its foundations last year. In that group, Cross held down the bottom end with aplomb, but he also stepped forward to take solos, unleashing earth-quaking borborygmi (that’s rumblings, folks) and wild leaps into the instrument’s upper register.

‘In those moments, [Sons Of Kemet leader] Shabaka [Hutchings] would say, “I want you to play by yourself to introduce the next song; just do whatever you can do”,’ Cross recalls. ‘It gave me the opportunity to try lots of different ways of playing, that freedom to really find my own voice and develop a sound.’ All through his time in Sons Of Kemet, Cross formed his own style, touring with grime artists such as Kano and composing music for his trio with saxophonist Nubya Garcia and drummer Moses Boyd. The latter two were key players on his debut album Fyah, released to widespread acclaim in 2019.

An organic fusion of African-Caribbean diasporic styles, the album is a key document of the new London jazz scene. ‘In my parents’ house, there was reggae and soca, music from the Caribbean,’ Cross explains, ‘but also, hip hop was a massive thing; grime was a big thing.’ A graduate of Tomorrow’s Warriors, the community music organisation that has been vital to London’s jazz renaissance, Cross went on to jam sessions at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and the Steam Down nights. ‘I was fortunate enough to find myself experiencing a lot of different sides of the London jazz experience, which I think is pretty varied. So when it came time to make a musical statement, it was an amalgamation of my life experience and the things that I had the opportunity to do and take from.’

He followed the largely acoustic Fyah with 2021’s Intra-I, a solo album recorded with drummer-producer Emre Ramazanoglu and a stellar line-up of guest vocalists. Drawing on reggae, dub, dancehall, soca, hip hop and grime, the album sees Cross processing and layering his tuba to create a range of timbres and textures. At times, the tuba can sound like a dub bassline or a grime synth; at others, it’s a tuba choir. ‘Sometimes I’d watch college marching bands where you had a tuba section that plays a tune. That was great. When the tuba harmonises with itself, it’s a world within itself. I really wanted to explore that as an album, and when lockdown came it gave me a bit more time to really focus on that, going into the tuba and exploring the different sounds and production. If you can utilise these things, you can make some great art.’

Intra-I also has a strong message, with the guest vocalists raising consciousness about African-Caribbean history and culture. ‘Conceptually, I feel like I was in a period where I was learning more about myself and what I wanted to say. I wanted people that could speak to the themes I was presenting, which for the most part was introspection; also knowing about your lineage and your history.’ The album is dedicated to Cross’ late father, Errol, a musician active in the 1980s British reggae scene. 

Cross paid homage to that era last year, with a cover of Aswad’s ‘Back To Africa’, the B-side to his single ‘Wings’, a banger recorded with his live band. ‘I really thought I should get this down in the studio because there’s a certain energy to it that I really like.’ This is the group he’ll be playing with in Edinburgh, with Nikos Ziarkas on guitar, Patrick Boyle on drums, Chelsea Carmichael on saxophone, and Nathaniel Cross on trombone. ‘Expect some explorations of music from the last few albums,’ he teases. ‘I feel that stepping into a live show is more of a wall of sound.’

Theon Cross plays at George Square Spiegeltent on Tuesday 18 July, 8.30pm as part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.