Thomas Marriott Quartet at Tula's

After the Sonarchy recording, I raced down to try and catch the last set of my brother Thomas at Tula's with Phil Sparks, Rick Mandyck, and Jose Martinez. I pulled by on my way to park to find four cops outside the club. After parking, I got to the club to find no disturbance any more, but boy had I missed it.

Our fine Seattle Police Department didn't have anything better to do on Satuday night than hastle the owner, staff and patrons of Tula's with an absolutely ridiculous inspection -- at 11:30pm no less! From what I was told, most of the patrons were scared -- the police were rushing around the club at all corners, as if there was a terrorist issue, bomb, or other possibly harmful person/item in the club. They also stood right in front of the bandstand while the quartet was playing! Needless to say, there will be some letter writing going on this week, especially with Dave and Jane Peck in attendance.

The music, on the other hand was great! Thomas was playing Old Folks when I came in, and then played a nice version of All of You. I was "coerced" into playing a few tunes to finish out the last set, and although being REALLY tired from my other gigs, we had a blast playing, especially on Society Red, an old Dexter Gordon blues we used to play in our quintet. Thomas is sounding as good as I've ever heard him, and though he's not playing as much as a leader, you can hear him around town with many groups. If you haven't heard his latest release on Origin Arts, Individuation, then get out there, check it out, and you'll hear what I'm talking about.