Last May, the Napa Valley Jazz Society was scheduled to feature him in a Dexter Gordon tribute that I helped organize, when he fell at the last minute and was unable to make the trip to Napa. Dexter Gordon¹s widow, Maxine Gordon, a jazz history scholar who is writing a book on Dexter, was interviewing Hadley about Dexter¹s early days. She had come to the Napa Valley tribute concert to be with Hadley and his most supportive and caring wife Linda Caliman, who accompanied him on many of his tours, particularly in the last two years of his illness.
A deeply fluent post-bop player, Caliman toured/recorded with such international jazz stars as Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, Gerald Wilson, Elvin Jones, Mongo Santamaria, Joe Pass, Joe Henderson, and Bobby Hutcherson. But his influence extended beyond jazz confines, both from his 1970s work with the likes of Carlos Santana, and his years teaching at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts.
My wife Sanna Craig and I already miss him and send our deepest sympathy to his wife Linda and his family and all the others whose lives he touched.