Earshot Jazz Festival: Marriott Brothers Revival Band

The Earshot Jazz Festival is underway October 1 – November 2 at venues around the Seattle metro area as it is each fall, bringing a range of outstanding musicians to our area.

We had the pleasure of hearing Festival Resident Artist trumpeter, composer, and producer Thomas Marriott and his band, the Marriott Brothers Revival, Sunday, October 19, at the Sea Monster Lounge in Wallingford, Seattle. Band members included Thomas Marriott on trumpet, his brother David Marriott on trombone, Joe Doria on the B3 organ, Tim Kennedy on the electric piano, and D ‘Vonne Lewis on drums, all at the top of their game.

What a muscular powerful sound! Marriott’s trumpet floats over the drums and keyboards and the band plays in tight coordination as if they had one collective heart. Their takes on a range of tunes reflect the complexity, beauty, and dissonance of our times. The polyphony expands the brain.

Marriott will play again this coming Thursday October 23 with Jazz Futures, a group of young players he has mentored at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship, which he founded. The Fellowship sponsors free jam sessions every Monday at its Pioneer Square, Seattle, venue as well as many concerts. See https://seattlejazzfellowship.org/

Last year Marriott became the youngest inductee into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame.

Marriott has recorded 14 albums, several of which have reached number one on the jazz radio airplay charts and earned 4 1/2 stars in Downbeat Magazine. He has played with bands such as the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Captain Black Big Band, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstafunk, hip-hop pioneer Deltron 3030, and vocalists Kurt Elling, and Ernestine Anderson.

Marriott has won nine Golden Ear Awards and been featured in the New York Times and on NPR. He was a soloist for more 20 seasons with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. In 2024, he was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association of America.

See the festival schedule and buy tickets at https://www.earshot.org.