Today we celebrate the birth dates of two Northwest saxophone icons. William George “Rams” Ramsay was born in Centralia, Washington on January 12, 1929, and Hadley Caliman was born three years later in Idabel, Oklahoma. Bill Ramsay and Hadley Caliman both went on to make significant impacts on the regional jazz scene.

Caliman (top left photo) was raised in rural Oklahoma by his mother before moving to Los Angeles with his father at age 10. He attended Jefferson High School and learned music from Art Farmer. During his career, Caliman played with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Don Ellis, Gerald Wilson, Earl Hines and Jon Hendricks. He also performed with Carlos Santana, the Grateful Dead and in a jazz-rock group led by Ray Draper. He moved to Cathlamet in southwest Washington state shortly after releasing his first album as a leader in 1971. Later Hadley Caliman taught at the Cornish College of the Arts until his retirement in 2003, while leading small groups at jazz venues in the Seattle area throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Caliman died from liver cancer in 2010.

Bill Ramsay (top right photo) played with a number of “name” bands over the years, including the bands of Benny Goodman, Maynard Ferguson, Ray McKinley, Buddy Morrow, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Les Brown. He also played with Thad Jones, Cab Calloway, Gene Harris and Quincy Jones. During the 1980s Ramsay led his own big band at Parnell’s jazz club in Seattle. He was also a member of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. Ramsay passed away in 2024.

Below are links to Hadley Caliman playing live at the Cellar Jazz Club in Vancouver, B.C., and Bill Ramsay featured during a big band performance of The Midnight Sun Never Sets at the Centrum festival in Port Townsend, Washington:

"HADLEY CALIMAN AT THE CELLAR JAZZ CLUB"

"THE MIDNIGHT SUN NEVER SETS"