Theo Croker – trumpet and samples
Idris Frederick – piano
Eric Wheeler – bass
Miguel Marcel Russell – drums

“In a field teeming with talented young lions, the bright sound of trumpeter Theo Croker still sticks out.”
– All About Jazz

Theo Croker makes a highly anticipated SMOKE debut with his stellar group featuring Idris Frederick, Eric Wheeler, and Miguel Marcel Russell. Croker is a GRAMMY Award-nominated trumpeter and genre-defying, generation-
defining artist who rejects boundaries and lets his voice ring through the music.

The grandson of legendary trumpeter Doc Cheatham, Crocker is a leading figure on the contemporary music scene renowned for his entrancing melodies and innovative approach. He was a student of Donald Byrd, a protégé of
Wynton Marsalis, and a veteran of performances with such jazz greats as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Gary Bartz, Kassa Overall, and many more.

Well-versed in the swing, bop, and modal styles of acoustic jazz, Croker’s own music reveals a love of organic funk, soul, and hip-hop. JazzWise reports, “Croker is a spiritualist and a politically minded artist and has long since turned his musical gaze towards a crossover culture where jazz, drum beats, reverberating, ethereal trumpet sounds, elements of hip-hop and club electronics, Afrofuturism, sampled voices and ritual tribal chants meet
organically and combine to create a gripping, spacey concoction.” The Wall Street Journal calls his music “timeless and of the moment.”