Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

PROFILE September 30, 2020

20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Thomas Marriott

The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America on Jackson St in the 1920's and 1930's. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the south. It has produced such historical jazz icons as Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson. In many instances it has acted as a temporary repose ...

ALBUM REVIEW March 28, 2020

Thomas Marriott: Trumpet Ship

By Paul Rauch

In a day and age when social and personal narratives pervade the jazz recording medium, it is a welcoming feeling to experience a recording of superb jazz musicians playing music in the moment the way it's supposed to be played—for the people. For his spring 2020 quartet release Trumpet Ship (Origin, 2020), Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott has summoned a powerhouse quartet that hits hard from the outset and never lets up. He has convened a band that shares ...

ALBUM REVIEW March 12, 2020

Thomas Marriott: Trumpet Ship

By Dan McClenaghan

Spontaneity rules. Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott had a day off from touring with his quartet, so he decided to go into the studio and record an album: Trumpet Ship. His twelfth outing for Origin Records—all of them reaching for the stars, all of them getting there—this quartet album lines up after his stop-you-in-your-tracks gorgeous Romance Language (Origin Records, 2018). A tough act to follow. Marriott and his band follow it well, with a sound which is freer, but every bit ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 8, 2018

Thomas Marriott: Romance Language

By Paul Rauch

Trumpeter Thomas Marriott has established his jazz credentials over the years through a collection of beautifully inspired and well received albums on the Origin Records label. His formidable chops, extensive vocabulary, respect for tradition and penchant for musical adventurism has put him into the conversation concerning the top practitioners of his instrument in modern times. Marriott has the rare ability to look deeply into the matter at hand, whether it be through interpretation of classic repertoire, or performing his deeply ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 7, 2018

Thomas Marriott: Romance Language

By Dan McClenaghan

Trumpeter Thomas Marriott moved back to Seattle after the requisite New York stint, where he worked with Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau band, the Chico O'Farrill Orchestra, and vibraphonist Joe Locke. Back on west coast home ground, he connected with the Seattle-based Origin Records, where he released ten top-notch albums as a leader, including Individuation (2005), Crazy: The Music Of Willie Nelson (2008)Constraints and Liberations (2010), and East West Trumpet Summit (2010), a teaming with fellow trumpeter Ray Vega.

INTERVIEW September 21, 2016

Thomas Marriott: Balance in Life and Music

By Paul Rauch

If one should by chance be curious of what is happening with jazz in the city of Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest, one would do well to check out what trumpeter Thomas Marriott is up to. Thomas has established himself as one the most exciting artists to emerge on the national jazz scene in the past decade, in part by releasing eleven albums as a leader on the Origin Records label, and with his riveting live performances on stage with ...

PROFILE September 7, 2016

Tula's Jazz Club: A Seattle Tradition in the Making

By Paul Rauch

Life in the Pacific Northwest is hauntingly similar to jazz music itself, from that which is inward, deep in the recesses of our collective soul, to the outward expressionism as a ray of sunlight, an exaltation of joy, harmony expressed in the deep, deep blue of sentient life, and of our enlightened sky. High notes expressed in tall mountain peaks, deep tones expressed by deep, dark waters, all while Tahoma sits like Buddha, the near autumn clouds acting as a ...