A joyful event celebrates the saxophone's place in music

The jam session is a time-honored tradition in jazz, where musicians play tunes not only to entertain an audience but also to meet and network with other musicians.

On Friday, the Indigo Hotel in East Liberty hosts one of those sessions — with a twist. Virtually all the musicians will be playing the saxophone.

“The Joy of Sax,” an annual gathering of saxophonists, will recognize National Saxophone Day, commemorating the Nov. 6 birth of Adolphe Sax, the Belgian instrument maker who invented the instrument and patented it in 1846. It runs from 6 to 10 p.m. 

This local celebration, which began in 2018, is the brainchild of Calvin Stemley, who plays tenor and soprano saxophones. The Wilkins resident is also the leader of the funk band House of Soul and the jazz-leading band STEMTECS. He participates in another group, called MIXXTAPE, and formerly led the jazz group Cross Currents. He is also a retired band director, having spent 17 years at Westinghouse High School. 

A native of Chicago, Stemley is an alumnus of Paul L. Dunbar Vocational Career Academy — one of his schoolmates later became the actor Mr. T — and Grambling State University. He came to Pittsburgh to attend graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology in 1983. Then he began teaching in Pittsburgh city schools, first as a substitute and then full time.

Stemley said when he lived on the North Side in the mid-to-late 1980s, he’d meet with other sax players on Sunday afternoons to talk shop. A few years ago, he came up with the concept of a saxophone summit. His first thought was, “What can I think of for a name?” So, he came up with a play on words from the 1972 book, “The Joy of Sex.” He had T-shirts printed with Adolphe Sax’s photo and a saxophone with the caption, “How’s your sax life?”

Although the saxophone is primarily considered a jazz instrument — and this year’s gathering will be heavy on jazz with a rhythm section that includes pianist Max Leake, bassist Dwayne Dolphin and drummer Dennis Garner — it was never Stemley’s intent to focus on that genre alone. Blues, gospel and even classical saxophonists would be welcome, as well.

Marino Galluzo of the classically oriented Three Rivers Saxophone Quartet attended one of those early jams. Stemley arranged a piece and Galluzo “conducted that with all 30 of us,” he said.

Kenny Blake of Murrysville, a fixture on the local music scene who has a national profile, has attended “The Joy of Sax” in the past. He marvels at the varying approaches of his fellow saxophonists.

“The fact that the saxophone is in that context, the different ways of going on playing, concentrating on sound and technique — it’s a great way to get together to hear all those approaches. When I get to hear other players in that kind of context, I think how different a voice can be from person to person,” he said. “The saxophones themselves [lend themselves] … to how the voices are used.” 

Blake refers to the alto, his primary horn, as “a low female voice, just like my mother,” and the tenor as “a high male voice, full of drama.”

The event is free to the public on Stemley’s insistence. And, of course, all saxophonists regardless of experience or genre are welcome. They can just show up and play; no reservation or advance notice is needed.

And true to the inclusiveness of the event, “We [all] have 12 notes [in the western music scale],” Stemley said. “Everybody’s relevant.”

No cover charge for the event. Hotel Indigo is located at 123 N. Highland Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206. For information on this and other events with Calvin Stemley and his bands, visit the events section of his website.