Tula Springs

Sometimes the most joyous and satisfying things in life occur in the light of pure happenstance. Such was the case when New York based baritone saxophone master Gary Smulyan ventured west in the 90's to perform and teach at the Jazz Port Townsend Festival in Washington state, in those days directed by veteran saxman, Bud Shank. There he met an unusually remarkable and versatile musician, Jay Thomas, a Seattle native and resident, and a friendship was forged that at last has produced a brilliantly modern hard bop recording, Lowdown Hoedown, on the Japanese CUG label. In a musical environment in which both Thomas and Smulyan thrive, Lowdown Hoedown seamlessly rollicks between hard driving bop, and the beauty of romanticism. It is a meeting between two jazz veterans from opposite coasts, grounded in the low tone mastery of Smulyan, and the fertile musical mind of Thomas.