A familiar tune: Seattle loses another cultural institution to rent increases

Tula’s Jazz club has been serving tunes and drinks in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood six nights a week for the past 26 years.

Throughout the years, jazz greats such as Roy Hargrove and Wynton Marsalis and local performer Greta Matassa have graced Tula’s stage.

But this Sunday, Tula’s closes its doors for good.

Mack Waldron is the owner of Tula’s, which was named after his wife. He opened it in a very different Seattle climate.

“It was a bit more rowdy in the beginning, but over time we acquired a more sophisticated crowd and quieter atmosphere,” Waldron said.

Since then, Tula's has been a cozy space for jazz lovers and appreciators.

By day, the space is quiet and calm. Sunlight peeks through the closed blinds onto neatly arranged white-clothed tables with place settings. Photos of artist friends in the local and national jazz community are scattered across its burgundy walls.

But at night, the tempo changes.

Tula’s club manager Jason Moore describes the shift as "a bus of 95 people being dropped off right at 7 o'clock."

But chaos recedes when the performing band starts up, and that's when Tula’s true atmosphere emerges.

“There’s never a cross word spoken in here, and you can almost hear a pin drop before the band starts to play and when the band stops playing," Waldron said.

Moore said that's the way it should be.

"That is what 26 years of cultural development will do. When I came in and started working for Mack, he said he just wanted it to be a local live Jazz club and that was the end of our conversation,” he said.

Tula’s lease was up seven years ago and they’ve been paying month to month rent. With steady rent increases, it’s no longer doable.

It’s a familiar tune here in Seattle, and Waldron has made his peace.

“It’s the city that will suffer from Tula’s closing, we were more or less geared for the local community, the Northwest jazz musicians,” he said.

Local musicians like vocalist Greta Matassa will miss performing at Tula’s. Matassa is solemn and practical as she looks towards the future.

“I’m blue about it, but I’m not going to sit still," Matassa said.

"The musicians aren’t going anywhere. The musicians are here in Seattle still and we were the ones that also created the environment and the fan base," she said.

"If they wanna do us a favor, go find those artists that you loved watching at Tula’s and go find where their playing, because we wanna keep the jazz scene alive.”

Both Waldron and Moore are ready to move on as well. They reflect fondly on, as Waldron puts it, "the miraculous work" of running a Jazz club.

“I'm happy I was able to participate in music in Seattle," Waldron said.

"It’s like Camelot, for one brief shining hour Tula’s was able to exist here for 26 years. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it!"