Josh Landress, a specialist in musical instruments based in New York City, has designed and hand-crafted a special trumpet. It is made from one hundred spent bullet casings. During the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that’s how many bullets were fired. Using that horrifying statistic as his guide, Landress has created a trumpet with the same number of bullet casings. This is all part of The Instrument of Hope project and jazz musician Theo Croker will perform on that trumpet in a free concert on Friday night at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Instrument of Hope seeks to provide healing through the arts. It was started by the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas and works in conjunction with Shine MSD, a non-profit created by the Parkland students.
Theo Croker is an award-winning trumpeter, songwriter, producer whose five albums have brought him considerable acclaim. He’s also collaborated with Common, Ari Lennox and others. Music is part of his genetic make-up: his grandfather was Doc Cheatham.
When he plays the Instrument of Hope, he will join Panic! At the Disco, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and other artists in playing this one-of-a-kind trumpet.
This jazz performance will begin at 7:00 PM with a performance by Sweet Baby J’ai. Croker will go on around 8:00 PM and The Women of Jazz will close the concert.
This is a free event.
Photo of Theo Croker by Craig Carpenter/All photos courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts