Randy Heddon

Randy Heddon was born to a musical family in Portland Oregon. His mother had played piano from an early age and one of her first jobs was a sheet music demonstrator at Sherman & Clay music in downtown Portland, where she would play the “hits” of the day for prospective buyers. Randy’s father although making his living as a businessman, would sit at the piano with Randy’s mother in the evenings and play either violin or Saxophone.Randy played with several bands in his teens, playing both drums and occasionally B3 Organ. He also started folk singing at this time, and was playing the Portland taverns and clubs by 17. He released a single “Candlerocking” that was played on local radio stations all over Portland and Eugene OR.At 18 Randy went to study music at University Of Oregon but soon realized that he wasn’t going to learn what he wanted. He had heard about a music school in Boston called “Berklee College of Music” which taught Jazz and contemporary composing. He applied and eventually graduated from Berklee.He moved to Los Angeles in the 1980’s and his first L.A. job was as a singing waiter where he performed with many great musicians including Peter Tork (monkees), Eric Lowen, Vonda Shepard, and many others. He preformed all over the Los Angeles area and released an EP of his original band in the late 80’s entitled “Bad Felix”.In the early 1990’s Randy traveled to do a 6 month gig in Osaka Japan with the band “Topaz”. After that Randy begin traveling the world with a variety of groups and solo engagements. Within the space of 6 years he had done long engagements in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Virgin Islands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Spain, The Canary Islands, and others.In 1999 Randy re-located back to Los Angeles and begin writing with his long time collaborator, Jimmy Street. They had worked together in “Bad Felix”, and after doing a commercial together started working on an original project which eventually became “L.A. Dialogues“. Every song on the CD is about a different part of L.A. “Rodeo Rodeo” “Midnight In Malibu” and many others. The CD was released in late 2003 and had been added all over the world to various smooth jazz stations, including still being a staple on XM and Sirius satellite networks.In 2006 Randy took some time to reflect musically on his life and the album “The Road to Santiago” is the result. The songs reflect the impermance and dreamlike nature of life, and finding what is truly important, as opposed to what may be fleeting or unreal.Randy again enlisted the help of Jimmy Street, along with Chick Corea Saxophonist Eric Marienthal, Ray Charles, Nora Jones Guitarist Irvin “Magic” Kramer, Celine Dion violinist Harry Scorzo, and many other great Los Angeles musicians.