A list of San Diego\u2019s successful music clubs would include places like The Casbah, The Observatory North Park, The Music Box, Soda Bar, Winston\u2019s and many other hotspots located in Uptown, Downtown or the beach areas. But there is also one surprising addition to that list that has been successful for jazz music in Mission Valley \u2014 The Handlery Hotel.<\/p>\n
For the past two and half years, jazz fans have packed the Handlery Hotel\u2019s 950 Lounge every Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to hear their favorite local and occasional touring jazz players.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like an old-fashioned jazz club, like when I started playing jazz clubs, where it isn\u2019t a supper club or requires a heavy reservation or heavy cover charge,\u201d promoter Holly Hofmann said.<\/p>\n Hofmann is a jazz flutist who has a long history of putting on jazz shows in San Diego. She ran a jazz series at Horton Hotel in Downtown from 1990 to 1997 featuring national acts; then held a similar series at the Bristol Court Hotel for a few years; and from 2000 to 2008 put on Jazz in the Park at the Art Museum in Balboa Park on every first Wednesday of the month.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a big history doing this because I believe that if you know how to do this you should do this so that everybody has a place to play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her latest jazz series at the 950 Lounge is a departure from the focus on national touring acts she used to promote and instead is a chance to promote local acts by making the show times and location easy for them to book around.<\/p>\n \u201cI designed it that way so guys can play this gig and then go to another gig,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was designed to be a room for all the local artists who make their living here.\u201d<\/p>\n Hofmann said she only books \u201creal jazz\u201d for her concert series \u2014 think Miles Davis as opposed to Kenny G.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I say \u2018real jazz,\u2019 it\u2019s the music of the masters. It\u2019s not the music of smooth anything. It\u2019s what I call mainstream and be-bop primarily in this room. I listen to all kinds of music and I support all kinds of music but I don\u2019t support people calling things jazz that aren\u2019t. It\u2019s music at a very high standard,\u201d she said, adding that while there are occasional singers, the groups she books are mostly instrumental.<\/p>\n The room at the 950 Lounge has only 80 seats and some limited standing room, so only around 100 people can cram into the small club.<\/p>\n \u201cWe turn people away every week,\u201d Hofmann said, and shared that there was once a show of local all-stars players that was so packed that around 250 people had to be turned away. The popularity of the Friday shows prompted Hofmann and the hotel to look at ways to expand the jazz show series.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re probably going to add another night because they can\u2019t get everybody in \u2014 maybe in the fall,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In addition to the free shows at the 950 Lounge, the Handlery has also opened up its ballrooms occasionally for larger jazz shows. In March, Hofmann\u2019s series celebrated a two-year anniversary with a ballroom concert and on Aug. 20 there will be a fundraiser for Gilbert Castellanos\u2019 jazz academy in the big ballroom, as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Big band concert<\/strong><\/p>\n The success of Hofmann\u2019s jazz series has inspired other local musicians to put on their own jazz concerts at the Handlery. On July 23, the hotel will put on its first Big Band Sunday show featuring The Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine.<\/p>\n Although not a production put on by Hofmann, Ira B. Liss said that it was his 30-year association with her that helped him decide to look at the hotel for his big band concert.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve known each other a long time and she has actually performed as a guest with the band in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd she pitched it to the management of the hotel and they liked the idea and I met with them on several occasions with the general manager and they said \u2018Let\u2019s do something.\u2019 So we\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike previous jazz shows at The Handlery, this one will be held outdoors in the hotel\u2019s Terrace Garden.<\/p>\n![\"Where](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/web-MAIN-DSC_0313.jpg\")
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