El Automóvil Gris (1919) featuring live music by Troker

Fearless and innovative, Mexican jazz-rockers Troker will perform live during a screening of the cult classic film El Automóvil Gris on Saturday, March 25 at 8 p.m. at The Frida Cinema (305 E 4th St., Santa Ana, CA 92701). Ninety-three years after its premiere, Troker will give this cinematic treasure a contemporary soundtrack for an unforgettable theater experience presented by Santa Ana Sites.

After performing their original score for El Automóvil Gris in venues throughout Mexico, England, Colombia, and Spain, Troker will bring their cine-concert to Santa Ana for its west coast debut. The concert experience will be held in The Frida Cinema, a celebrated haven for avant-garde and explorative films. Logan Crow, founder and director of The Frida Cinema, looks forward to the upcoming installment of Santa Ana Sites and working with artistic director Allen Moon.

“I am so excited that this particular event – with its fusion of live performance and classic film – is the first collaboration between The Frida Cinema and Santa Ana Sites,” comments Crow. “I look forward to seeing what happens when Allen applies his extraordinary vision into transforming our cinema into a Santa Ana Sites for the evening, and experiencing a 98-year-old film brought back to life by an accomplished group of musicians.”

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 Automóvil 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 Automóvil Gris is a celebrated piece of Mexico’s cinematic history, and will be re-energized with Troker’s psychedelic, progressive jazz sound.