Norwich Jazz Festival: Theon Cross

Name: Norwich Jazz Festival: Theon Cross
Start: 2026-05-16T20:00:00+01:00
Location: Norwich Arts Centre

Sat 16 May 2026

A person standing in deep red lighting while holding a large brass tuba. The reflective surface of the instrument catches the red light, creating dramatic highlights. The individual wears a light-colored shirt, and the background fades into dark shadows.

Norwich Jazz Festival presents Theon Cross + Sure D

Part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival

Theon Cross (Sons of Kemet) is one of those rare musicians whose vision has redefined their instrument. His unique approach to the tuba has expanded the instrument’s sonic possibilities in revolutionary fashion, restoring it to a long-forgotten prominence as a crucial part of the contemporary jazz ensemble. Through his combination of technical mastery, studio smarts, deep musical knowledge and expansive vision, the power and originality of Theon’s playing has reinvented the tuba’s place in modern music.

Exploring the tuba’s possibilities in the light of diasporic bass culture, Theon has worked to develop the full sonic spectrum of his instrument, transforming it into a total 21st century sound-system, powered by breath. Using the instrument’s ability to produce sub-sonics, bass, mids, and tops, Theon creates complete sound-worlds, building up from rhythm and bass to arrive at melody. Employing its oft-neglected capacity to generate complex multiphonics and sustained pedal tones, he can summon colour, texture and atmosphere. With this expanded low-end theory as his base, Theon approaches his music with a sensibility that travels freely across outernational style and genre, but which remains deeply rooted in his own African-Caribbean heritage.

A graduate of Guildhall school of music and an alumnus of the legendary Tomorrow’s Warriors, he is as at home with ensemble jazz as he is when playing road marches, collaborating with grime stars, or providing bassline pressure in reggae, afrobeat or soca settings. Theon released his first EP Aspirations in 2015 followed by his first album FYAH in 2019 and the Intra-I in 2021. He was a key member of Sons of Kemet until their dissolution in 2022. He has featured on albums by The Smile, Little Simz, Steamdown, Makaya McCraven, Joy Crookes, Ill Considered to name a few and contributed his version of Thelonious Monk’s Epistrophy to the Blue Note Re:Imagined series.