Trumpeter Theo Croker’s third album blends the celestial spiritual jazz modalities of Pharoah Sanders with funky, Donald Byrd-esque vamps and organ-drenched fusions reminiscent of Lonnie Liston Smith. But it’s hardly a retro affair, with crisp brass lolling to a contemporary R&B bump (“No Escape from Bliss”) or skittering to broken-beat rhythms (“The Right Time”). When Croker teams with his mentor, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, for a clubby remake of her “Love from the Sun,” or trades rippling solos with his DVRK FUNK bandmates on “We Can’t Breathe,” he rockets jazz into new sonic orbits.

Trumpeter, composer, and arranger Theo Croker is an adventurous musician whose adept skills find him at home whether playing standards, swinging post-bop, or more groove-oriented electric jazz. A native of Leesburg, Florida, Croker is the grandson of the late great jazz trumpeter Doc Cheatham. He began playing trumpet around age 11 after hearing Cheatham play in New York City, and by his teens was studying music at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida. From 2003 to 2007, Croker attended the music conservatory at Oberlin College. While at Oberlin, he was mentored by legendary trumpeter and educator Donald Byrd. Also during this time he earned the Presser Music Foundation Award, which funded his debut album, 2006's Fundamentals. After graduating Oberlin, Croker relocated to China, where he took up residency at Shanghai's House of Blues. In 2009 he released his sophomore album, In the Tradition, which paid tribute to Cheatham. Croker returned to the States in 2013 and in 2014 he released his third solo album, the Dee Dee Bridgewater-produced Afro Physicist, on OKeh Records. The album found Croker branching out stylistically, weaving elements of funk, Latin jazz, and hip-hop into his sound. In 2016 he delivered Escape Velocity, which found him delving deeper into a genre-bending, spiritually enlightened, funk-influenced jazz sound.