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Tenor saxophonist and composer
Dayna Stephens is an adept post-bop musician whose music reflects the influence of players like
Wayne Shorter,
Joe Henderson, and
Charlie Rouse. Following his emergence in the early 2000s, he has played with a bevy of heavy-hitting jazz artists, including
Phil Ranelin,
Ambrose Akinmusire,
Kenny Barron, and others. He has released a number of highly engaging small-group albums, including 2013's
That Nepenthetic Place, 2017's Gratitude with
Brad Mehldau, and 2020's Right Now! Live at the Village Vanguard.
Born in 1978,
Stephens grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where he started playing saxophone at age 12. In his teens, he studied with saxophonist
Dann Zinn and pianist
Kenny Barron while participating in various jazz programs at U.C. Berkley, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and Oakland's Golden Gate Library. He was also a member of the Berkeley High School big band and played some of his first professional gigs with local Bay Area luminaries like pianist
Ed Kelly and trumpeter Khalil Shaheed. After high school, he attended the Berklee School of Music on a full scholarship and eventually finished his studies at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He has performed and recorded with such artists as
Phil Ranelin,
Taylor Eigsti,
Sachal Vasandani,
Gerald Clayton, and
Gretchen Parlato, among others.
As a leader, he debuted in 2007 with The Timeless Now, followed by 2012's
Today Is Tomorrow. Around this time,
Stephens revealed that he had been diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSG), a disease that attacks the kidneys and requires regular dialysis treatments and, in
Stephens' case, a kidney transplant. Despite his struggles with FSG, he continued to perform and record, releasing two albums in 2013,
That Nepenthetic Place and
I'll Take My Chances. A year later he delivered Peace, featuring guitarist
Julian Lage, pianist
Brad Mehldau, bassist
Larry Grenadier, and drummer
Eric Harland.
He then joined fellow saxophonist
Walter Smith III for 2015's sextet date
Reminiscent, and in 2017 reunited with
Mehldau,
Grenadier, and
Harland for Gratitude. Also that year, he collaborated with drummer Matt Smith and trumpeter
Curtis Taylor on I. Am. Calm. A concert album, Right Now! Live at the Village Vanguard arrived in 2020 and showcased
Stephens' quartet with pianist
Aaron Parks, bassist
Ben Street, and drummer
Gregory Hutchinson. Both
Street and
Harland were also on board that same year for
Stephens' trio album Liberty. ~ Matt Collar