Above and at front, Jeff Teczon. Photos by Craig Sanders / 209Vibe. Additional photos of Teczon and others performing at a recent Prime Time bar jam session by Craig Sanders / 209Vibe.

You don't need to drive to the Bay Area and fork over $60 for a concert ticket to hear a Grammy nominee perform.

Just head to the Prime Time Sports Bar on Miner Avenue in Stockton on Sunday nights. Admission is free, and you'll most likely get a chance to hear Jeff Teczon play his sax. If you bring an instrument to Prime Time, you can even perform with him.

A Stockton resident, Teczon, 37, was among the players on John Lee Hooker Jr.'s album "All Odds Against Me," which is nominated for a Grammy for best traditional blues album. He runs free open jam sessions at 7 p.m. Sundays at Prime Time, 235 E. Miner Ave., and 8 p.m. Wednesdays at the Shadow Oaks, 7555 Pacific Ave.

"I do it so the artists here can network," Teczon said. "I hate the fact that musicians here have to leave Stockton to do anything. You have all this young artists here.

"When you get places and people like this together… the magic that's created by that is incredible," he added.

Stanley Raquel is among the Stockton residents who credit Teczon's jam sessions for helping them develop as musicians. Raquel, 38, plays guitar in the Icarus Jones Collective, among other local groups.

"Jeff is awesome, I have nothing but admiration for that guy. He’s taught me so much, it's ridiculous," Raquel said. "I can’t tell you how many musicians I’ve met through that guy."

Teczon said his father introduced him to music when he was a child.

"I can remember, all the way back when I was 3 years old, sitting on his lap and he's showing me these chords. I'm still playing those chords today," Teczon said.

He's been performing professionally since he was 11, and his love for music grew while he was a student at Franklin High School.

"I'd go to class with my sax," he said.

Fellow Franklin alum Mike Klooster said Teczon got him started in music. Klooster was planning to go to college to major in aeronautical engineering after graduation; then Teczon asked him to perform with him in a group.

"His music just rubbed off on me. He's very influential. He's always like a teacher," said Klooster, 35, who went on to play keyboards in Smashmouth. "I'll play a solo, and it's like yeah that's cool. He'll play a solo and people applaud. He touches people.

"He's clearly one of the best musicians in town, if not the best," Klooster added.

Teczon's talent brought him to the attention of Stockton trumpeter Frank James Bailey, 52, another Franklin alum who performed on two previous John Lee Hooker Jr. albums.

When there was an opening for a sax player on "All Odds Against Me," Bailey brought in Teczon, who recorded four songs with Hooker's horn section in April 2008 in Los Angeles.

"The professional vibe there was incredible," he said.

Teczon will learn if the work will earn him a Grammy when the awards are announced Feb. 8. He said when he heard about the nomination, "I was elated. I was jumping for joy."

"I had a smile you couldn't pry off my face with a crowbar," he said.

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