Flexicon

Thomas Marriott, a Seattle-based trumpet and flugelhorn player, assembles a top-notch band from his hometown and, supplementing it with New York vibraphonist Joe Locke for two tracks, produces a disc that will put the Emerald City on the jazz map.

Marriott not only has a signature sound individually -- tuneful during solos, lyrical even when he plays at accelerated tempos -- he achieves a group sound as well. He often forms unison horn lines by combining flugelhorn with Mark Taylor's soprano saxophone, a unique sound, while the rhythm section of pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer Matt Jorgensen do all the right things in support. For the Wayne Shorter composition Masqualero, Anschell switches to electric piano and Marriott and Taylor stagger the horn voicings, the group achieving a spacey sound. For the Marriott original composition Circadian Rhythms, Marriott and Taylor carry on a vigorous musical conversation, their improvisations overlapping without getting in each other's way.