You’re not quite sure what to expect when you hit that green play button on Theo Croker’s Afro Physicist Album. Theo comes in as a solo trumpet, with traditional flare and blare, on Alapa, tribute for Doc Cheatham, his grandfather. His tone is utterly unique, and his steezy wah wahs and buzzes make you want to make that stank face. His sound is like the flickering candles on New Years Eve — there’s some sinister inevitability to his playing, like the next year creeping up on you. I’ve seen it described online as dark funk and that’s a pretty apt description, I think. 

Suddenly, it’s like the lights are turned on and those flickering candles fade into the background. Theo goes full chorus effect, synth, modern big band style on his next track, “Realize,” and it's real shocking. The groove’s funkin, it’s devious, and Theo holds it up over everything else that’s going on. He’s the same guy playing on the previous track, but you realize it feels different with chords and textures flying around as he marches forward. He’s a rockstar. 

Those two tracks really set the tone of the record’s contrast in style and sound, and he’s telling us to stay on the balls of our feet, because we don’t know what to expect going forward. Indeed, we’ll traverse through this underground world of funk, rock drum fills, samba-sounding egg shakers, and awesome vocals featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater. Her unhurried yet intense provocations over Save Your Love For Me works real well with Theo’s dark, leisurely tone. 

We get vocal-heavy to the latter end of this record with an appearance by brilliant trumpeter Roy Hardgrove, and one of my personal favorite musicians, this time on voice. They play Roy Allan, a song Roy dedicated to his father, with the melodic and prominent baseline painting the picture of his father’s “earthiness.” 

Dee comes back for two more after that, and it by no means feels repetitive, each a new sound, new sound, new speed. 

The final tune, entitled Bo Masekela takes us out, walking beside mammoths and elephants toward the sunset, the earth shaking and the sky rumbling. We’re in migration, to another place. On this track, Theo sits down for conversation with Michael Bowie on bass. Then, the silence stretches, going on for 5,10,15 seconds, definitely  an unconventional end to a song, and an album. It gives us time to wait, to wonder, to feel a little uncertainty. And perhaps that is how we should feel at the end of a journey, which is what this listen was.