The jam is no longer being hosted there, but the Hedley features top shelf live jazz. The Jazz Jam at the Hedley Club was a premier jazz jam in the South Bay area and took place the first and third Wednesday of each month. The Jazz Jam was hosted by drummer Stephen Marley and sponsored by the San Jose Jazz Society, The Hotel DeAnza, and The Lumina Music Group. The Hedley Club is a fantastic venue
- with dazzling Art Deco architecture, and friendly staff serving exceptional food and beverages
The Jazz Jam iwa open to musicians of all ages and abilities. Musicians needed to be reasonably capable of playing the jazz genre and/or be able to sightread tunes out of a fake book. The sessions ran from 7:30-10:30pm. There was a sign up sheet on a music stand near the band, and Steve started calling up jam participants shortly after a warm-up set featuring the house trio. Steve scheduled a different house rhythm section for each jam. Past house trios included "first call" pianists, Murray Low, Lee Pardini, and Frank Sumares --- and notable players like Kirk Tamura, David Weitzman, Greg Chen, Larry Chinn, Terrigal Burn, Neil Adler, Tim Chernikoff, Yuma Sung, Nichole Boaz, and Loro Stotko were in future line ups. The Hedley Club Jazz Jam featured bassists John Shifflett, Ken Okada, Michael Glynn, Fred Paclibon, Doug Pohorski, Joe Costantini, Danny Gerz, Perry Thoosell, Chris Davis, Nicholas Caceres and others. Amazing drummers swung by to sub or just sit in at the Hedley, including Wally Schnalle, Jeff Ballard, Peppe Merolla, Sylvia Cuenca, and Joe de Rose, an so many others. There was always great musicianship at the Hedley Club and jammers could count on hearing inspiring work from the pros who drop in to play and experience solid support from the house band for their own performances
Steve asked that musicians not call any "long form" ballads.. Those tunes could take up a great deal of time, especially with extended solo sections. They always had a number of players signed up who were eager to play, so those "way overblown" solos and painfully slow set up times could really eat into the time available for everyone. Steve tried to get everyone up to play, even people who arrived late. Players typically played two tunes, but musicians who arrived after 8:45 or who played a very extended solo were sometimes asked to limit their performance to one tune. The key to happiness was to come early, sign up, have a drink, order up one of the delicious “jam happy hour specials”, and celebrate the prestigious event with a room full of good friends who really loved jazz. The Hedley Jazz Jam was an amazing venue and a great "hang”! The Hedley Club is located on the first floor of the Hotel DeAnza, 233 West Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA 95113.
