Maktub's guitarist is a busy man

Thaddeus Turner is so cool, he makes ice shiver. He's so smooth, silk rubs up against him.

He's so ...

Enough with the hyperbole. No need for hype and jive, Thaddeus Turner is a quiet man who allows his guitar — and track record — to do the talking.

What speaks to his HQ (hip quotient), more than anything, is his position as guitarist of Maktub, arguably the Northwest's coolest band. The Seattle soul-rock band is finishing up its third album, being produced by Bob Power, who has worked on albums by the Roots, Common and De La Soul.

Turner was not in the original Maktub lineup, joining the band in 2001, and bringing with him a powerful guitar that has added another weapon to the band's arsenal. "Thad brings a raw, emotional yet chaotic orderliness that keeps the band on its toes," Maktub leader Reggie Watts mused, in an e-mail from London.

"I am, therefore I jam" seems to be the philosophy of Maktub members. When not touring with Maktub or his solo show, the endlessly creative Watts improvises with various musicians at clubs around Seattle just about every night. Similarly, Turner jams with different lineups several nights a week.

Last Wednesday, he was a calmly grooving, Buddha-with-a-guitar presence at Fremont's Nectar, anchoring a live hip-hop show — the MC's from Nu Soltribe bouncing a nonstop flow of free-style raps.

Saturdays, Turner plays up-temp jazz at Wallingford's Wonder Bar.

Sunday nights, he tears into R&B, soul and acid funk at the Scarlet Tree in the University District.

The guitarist tones down and kicks it back downtown on Tuesdays, backing keyboardist Darrius Willrich in the Triple Door lounge.

Turner is out there playing so many nights "in order to just pay bills. I hate to put it in those terms, but Maktub is pretty big in Washington state — and nowhere else. It's a struggle. In one light you're thought of as being successful, then reality sets in when you're on the road and no one knows who you are, when there's like four people in the crowd."

Last year, Turner recorded and toured with Cherrywine, the latest project from Seattle's Ishmael Butler — "Butterfly" from Digable Planets. Turner's greatest strength as a guitarist might be his versatility, his ability to flow from the soul-rock Maktub to hip-hop with Cherrywine to jazz and R&B on his club nights.

"I'm a blue-collar worker — my tool box is filled with strings. I'm a musician, I have to be very malleable. I have to be able to contort myself into any kind of situation."

Sunday night, sideman Turner will be fronting his own band: Thadilac. Turner will be playing along side his little brother, bass player Gerald Turner, and drummer Davee C. as Thadilac warms up the crowd for hip-hop headliners Sir Mix-a-Lot and Outtasite at Premier nightclub's Halloween show (9 p.m., $20).

A week before the show, Thaddeus Turner was asked what Thadilac would be like. "To tell you the truth," he answered, "I don't know what the hell I'm going to do on Halloween. First of all, I want to have a good time. It's a holiday, and I want people to have fun."

They usually do, when that cool dude Thaddeus Turner is jamming.

• The Tractor Tavern has a Halloween double-header. First, Boise folk singer Rosalie Sorrels will tell Halloween stories and sing scary songs in an afternoon show at 2 o'clock Sunday ($15). Then come Those Darn Accordions, who might scare you with a squeezebox cover of Led Zeppelin. TDA is mostly a San Francisco band, but there's a local angle, as lead singer/squeezer Paul Rogers, recently moved to Port Hadlock, outside of Port Townsend. He came to the Northwest "Mostly to be near my folks who have been here about 20 years and need a little help. The move has worked out well, as it allowed me time to record the new CD in my home studio and concentrate full time on the band. "That new CD is "Lawnball," and Rogers and company will be playing from it — the likes of "There's Another Dumbass on the Mountain" and a cover of "Whole Lotta Love" — at the Tractor at 8 Sunday night ($10).

• Speaking of quirky squeezers, Seattle accordionist/performance artist Jason Webley has his annual Halloween show at Town Hall — 1119 Eighth Ave. — at 8 p.m. Saturday ($10). He likes to act out his own death this time of year. "One year I was shaved and put in a coffin, another year a woman in white took me to sea in a small wooden boat, last year I was carried away by hundreds of helium balloons. ... The concert on the 30th will be my fifth death. It will be the most elaborate, and I am thinking perhaps the last." Let's hope so.

• What is it about Halloween and accordions? Like vampires, they'll be all over the place this weekend.

The marvelous Circus Contraption — accordion, tuba, theremin, washboard and more — will play its delightfully creepy, morbidly melancholy music at a Halloween show at Sand Point Magnuson Park at 9 tonight ($12). Costume-wearing Japanese-pop band the Buttersprites open, and "creepy installations" are promised.

Meanwhile, in Georgetown, the Space Accordion is on a wide-ranging bill that includes Baby Gramps, semi-pro wrestling, fire eating, belly dancing, etc. at the JEM Studios (6004 12th Ave.) at 8 Halloween night ($7, $5 with costume).

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com