Upclose with Theo Croker
American jazz trumpeter Theo Croker comes from musical stock—his grandfather was Grammy-winning horn legend, Doc Cheatham—but his music speaks for itself. Now based in Shanghai, he’s playing his first Hong Kong gig with funk band Afrosonic. He talks to Penny Zhou about childhood, grandpa and Herbie Hancock.
HK Magazine: Growing up in a musical family, did you always want to be a musician?
Theo Croker: Nah, I always wanted to be an astronaut. Seriously. But then when I looked up all the schools I had to go through to become an astronaut, and realized it’s never gonna happen. But music has always been a part of my life. When I was three, four years old I’d beat on everything with chopsticks and sing all day; basically you couldn’t shut me up. I signed up for trumpet in school when I was 11. My parents said I didn’t have to play it just because my grandfather was a trumpeter. But at that time I didn’t really get the whole famous musician thing about him. I used to go to his gigs and not pay much attention to his music, just run around the club, being a bad little boy.
HK: Now you’re a jazz trumpeter, too. How do you feel about being constantly linked to your grandfather?
TC: I guess it helps people who normally wouldn’t pay attention to me do. But we’re actually two jazz musicians of very different generations and styles. My grandpa’s career was 70 years long, and he spent most of it being the lead trumpet player in big bands. He was one of the most in demand players in the scene. At his 60s, when most people retire, he was recoding and studying himself, and teaching himself how to be a soloist. I’ve heard people playing trumpet in their 60s and it sounded horrible, because it’s hard for older people to play. But my grandpa just got better and stronger and more unique at that age, and later became widely recognized as a solo artist in his 70s. It’s crazy and weird, nobody does that. [Laughs.] And it’s very inspiring.
HK: How did you start your career?
TC: I went the other way. I started off doing my own thing. Even when I was in school I’d fight my teacher on how I thought it should go. My college (Oberlin College) has a very liberal approach of teaching music. Instead of dealing with teachers, we’re dealing with professional performers. So I was learning stuff from people who were doing what I wanted to do, instead of people who told me what to do even though they’d never done it, i.e. music teachers.
HK: Biggest music heroes?
TC: When grandpa died, Verve Records sent me a box of every CD they released that year, and a Dizzy Gillespie record really caught me. He’s probably the first big influence on me. Later I bought “Miles Smiles,” it’s an album of Miles Davis with Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. It was a killer, and from there I eventually got into everybody.
HK: Have you met Herbie Hancock?
TC: I have. He said to me “I would love to make music with you someday.” I don’t know if he says that to everybody but that made me so happy. I kind of floated off just thinking, “Wow, Herbie wants to play with me!” Well, it’s more like “Herbie will maybe one day let me play with him!” I know some other cats, too, like Gary Bartz (saxophonist) and Billy Hart (jazz drummer); they’re amazing.
HK: What about Chris Botti?
TC: I’ve met him once. I’m pretty sure he was high at the time, honestly... He’s a good trumpet player, but he’s more like a Britney Spears of trumpet players. I get what he does, which is something everybody can like, and that’s cool. I just don’t think he should represent jazz music.