Presented by Santa Ana Sites, Troker’s genre-bending sound careens through the sublime and the dangerous. A jazz-fusion blend where metal riffs merge with powerhouse funk drumming and electronica, and melodic horn lines pull from jazz and mariachi traditions. Praised for their progressive style by Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post, Troker has appeared at festivals across the globe including Glastonbury in England and the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Their worldwide acclaim led to an invitation from the National Film Institution, who challenged the six-piece jazz outfit to compose new music for Mexico’s first silent film.
A favorite of film buffs and forever edgy, El Automovil Gris tells the infamous story of a gang of thieves disguised as soldiers that kidnap and rob affluent families in Mexico. Based on true events and released in 1919, critics considered the silent film a great work of cinema that featured inspector Juan Manuel Cabrera playing himself and used real footage of the actual thieves meeting their ultimate demise. El Automovil Gris is a celebrated piece of Mexico’s cinematic history, and will be re-energized with Troker’s psychedelic, progressive jazz sound.
About Troker
If Salvador Dali ever made a heist movie, then Mexico’s Troker would have been the soundtrack. Their sound careens between the sublime and the dangerous, turning on a dime to switch from precise and complex to wild and free. To do that, the six-piece group has created a blend of the composed and the improvised, where metal riffage merges with powerhouse funk drumming and DJ scratching, and horn lines pull from jazz and the mariachi tradition of the band’s homeland (Guadalajara, México). In 2015, they were honored by the selection of one of the top 10 live jazz performances of the year by the New York City Jazz Record. Troker became first band to play twice, in consecutive years, at the West Holts Stage in the legendary Glastonbury Festival in England. Their concerts are, in the words of All About Jazz, “noisy, chaotic, sprawling, messy, and altogether wonderful.” In 2016, they were named by RollingStone Mexico as one of top 20 Mexican artists breaking boundaries. They made their premiere at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September 2016.
About The Frida Cinema
The Frida Cinema is a program of the Long Beach Cinematheque, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization. The Frida Cinema will serve Santa Ana and neighboring communities as an arthouse cinema, dedicated to enriching, connecting, and educating communities through the art of cinema.