Fyah (LP)

#1 in UK Jazz Charts Theon Cross strides confidently forth from his crucial role alongside Shabaka Hutchings in the award-winning Sons Of Kemet to unleash one of the vital sounds of 2019. Irresistibly inventive, while at once both serious and witty - Theon Cross plays Tuba like no-one else. An enormous, swaggering bass emanates from Theon's magnificent horn, evoking sweaty clubnights where dance floor bangers sit side by side with intricate arrangements. Alongside him Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd, leading lights from London's Jazz golden generation, provide joyously upbeat accompaniment. Elsewhere Wayne Francis of Steamdown fame guests. Drawing on London's vivacious cutural heritage, the album dips in and out of grime, afrobeat, dub, dancehall and Jamaican roots music. This is an album that refuses to be shackled by the confines of Jazz, or indeed any genre. "A prodigious young talent" - New York Times "Incredible!" - Gilles Peterson "Theon Cross crucially embraces the bass and rhythm role with exuberant inventiveness"- The Guardian "Theon Cross plays the tuba as if it's a Roland 303, generating deep, Flubber-like bass lines as well as wild squalls, percussive pops and dubstep bwaps"- The Quietus