Theo Croker

Emerging in a post-internet era of overnight successes and viral hits, trumpeter, composer, producer and vocalist Theo Croker took the long road, turning his back on a burgeoning jazz career to spend much of his twenties performing and developing his work in China, paving the way for his breathless polyglot aesthetic. The grandson of the superb traditional New Orleans trumpeter Doc Cheatham, Croker was born in Leesburg, Florida, in 1985, and picked up the same horn aged 11. After graduating from Oberlin Conservatory in 2007 he moved to Shanghai, where he served as resident artist at the local House of Blues. In 2009, he released his first album, In the Tradition, paying homage to Cheatham, but by the time he returned to the U.S. in 2013 and dropped his Dee Dee Bridgewater-produced follow-up, Afro Physicist, the following year, his sound had blossomed into a seamless mélange of modern soul, supple hip-hop, sleek funk and sultry post-bop. In the years since, that expansion has continued from all sides, with Croker deftly locating the overlap and illustrating the Black American music continuum with ease, intelligence and genuine musical heft, shepherding Afrofuturist music into a new era.