Dayna Stephens

Baritone Sax
Artist Albums
Recently Added
02/21/2024
Smalls
Alexander Claffy Quintet
09/24/2022
Smalls
Billy Drummond Freedom of Ideas
09/23/2022
Smalls
Billy Drummond Freedom of Ideas
09/22/2022
Smalls
Kiyoshi Kitagawa quartet
06/21/2022
Smalls
Jochen Rueckert quartet
06/15/2022
Smalls
Patrick Cornelius Octet
01/19/2022
Smalls
Ben Tiberio Quintet
12/20/2021
Smalls
John Chin Quintet
10/30/2021
Smalls
Billy Drummond Quartet
10/29/2021
Smalls
Billy Drummond Quartet
09/30/2021
Smalls
Ferenc Nemeth Trio
08/17/2021
Smalls
Dayna Stephens Trio
12/23/2020
Smalls
Simona Premazzi Quartet
08/20/2020
Smalls
Pinciotti- Avital-Stephens Group
02/17/2020
Smalls
Anthony Pinciotti Trio
10/27/2018
Smalls
Gerry Gibbs and Thrasher People
10/11/2018
Smalls
Noam Wiesenberg Quintet
09/04/2018
Smalls
Theo Hill Quartet
06/09/2018
Smalls
Mike Rodriguez Quintet
06/08/2018
Smalls
Mike Rodriguez Quintet
03/28/2018
Smalls
Le Boeuf Brothers
12/04/2017
Smalls
Tal Gamlieli & Change of Heart
11/02/2017
Smalls
Luca Santaniello Quartet
10/21/2017
Mezzrow
Danny Grissett, Dayna Stephens, Peter Washington & Bill Stewart
10/20/2017
Mezzrow
Danny Grissett, Dayna Stephens, Peter Washington & Bill Stewart
09/28/2017
Smalls
The David Berkman Sextet
09/22/2017
Smalls
Jean-Michel Pilc "Total Madness" Quintet
09/10/2017
Mezzrow
Julian Shore w. Dayna Stephens, Edward Perez & Colin Stranahan
09/07/2017
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Sextet
09/06/2017
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Sextet
08/17/2017
Smalls
The Josh Ginsburg Quartet
08/17/2017
Smalls
Rick Rosato Quartet
05/31/2017
Smalls
The Adam Birnbaum Quintet
02/27/2017
Mezzrow
Sam Yahel & Dayna Stephens Duo
02/06/2017
Smalls
Kenneth Salters's Haven
12/28/2016
Smalls
The David Berkman Quartet
11/17/2016
Mezzrow
Adam Birnbaum with Dayna Stephens
08/25/2016
Smalls
Sanah Kadoura - After-hours Jam Session
07/07/2016
Smalls
The Quincy Davis Quintet
07/06/2016
Smalls
The Quincy Davis Quintet
06/20/2016
Smalls
The Dan Cray Quartet
06/14/2016
Mezzrow
Mezzrow "Polite" Jam session
05/19/2016
Smalls
The Joe Martin Quartet
05/18/2016
Smalls
The Joe Martin Quartet
04/06/2016
Smalls
The Adam Birnbaum Quintet
04/03/2016
Mezzrow
Dayna Stephens & Gadi Lehavi
03/19/2016
Smalls
The Ethan Iverson Quartet
03/18/2016
Smalls
The Ethan Iverson Quartet
02/08/2016
Smalls
Eden Ladin's YEQUM
02/04/2016
Smalls
Simona Premazzi "Outspoken"
10/06/2015
Smalls
The Theo Hill Quintet
09/15/2015
Smalls
The Theo Hill Quintet
08/12/2015
Smalls
The Danny Grissett Quartet
07/30/2015
Smalls
The Adam Birnbaum Quintet
07/29/2015
Smalls
The Adam Birnbaum Quintet
07/16/2015
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
07/15/2015
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
07/07/2015
Smalls
The Theo Hill Quintet
06/10/2015
Smalls
The David Berkman Sextet
05/30/2015
Smalls
The Quincy Davis Quintet
05/29/2015
Smalls
The Quincy Davis Quintet
05/21/2015
Smalls
The Theo Hill Quartet
05/06/2015
Smalls
After-hours Jam Session
04/04/2015
Smalls
The Greg Hutchinson Quintet
04/03/2015
Smalls
Greg Hutchinson Quintet
04/02/2015
Smalls
Greg Hutchinson Quintet
03/25/2015
Smalls
The Itamar Borochov Quintet
03/16/2015
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Trio
02/12/2015
Smalls
The Julian Shore Quintet
11/27/2014
Smalls
The Simona Premazzi Quartet
11/24/2014
Smalls
The Doug Weiss Quartet
11/06/2014
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
11/05/2014
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
10/05/2014
Smalls
The Marianne Solivan Quartet
08/21/2014
Smalls
The Adam Cote Quartet
06/26/2014
Smalls
The David Berkman Quartet
06/25/2014
Smalls
The David Berkman Quartet
05/17/2014
Smalls
Billy Drummond's "Freedom of Ideas"
05/16/2014
Smalls
Billy Drummond's "Freedom of Ideas"
05/08/2014
Smalls
The Matt Brewer Group
04/23/2014
Smalls
The Theo Hill Quintet
04/22/2014
Smalls
The Theo Hill Quintet
04/13/2014
Smalls
The Andre Sumelius Trio
02/20/2014
Smalls
The Simona Premazzi Quartet
12/29/2013
Smalls
The John Harbison Project
12/10/2013
Smalls
After-hours Jam Session
11/14/2013
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Group
11/13/2013
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Group
11/12/2013
Smalls
After-hours Jam Session
10/16/2013
Smalls
After-hours Jam Session
09/22/2013
Smalls
The John Harbison Project
09/12/2013
Smalls
The David Berkman Quartet
09/11/2013
Smalls
The David Berkman Quartet
08/22/2013
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
08/21/2013
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
07/09/2013
Smalls
The Smalls Legacy Band
05/15/2013
Smalls
The Doug Weiss Trio
05/01/2013
Smalls
The Adam Birnbaum Quartet
03/14/2013
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Group
03/13/2013
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quintet
11/12/2012
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Group
10/25/2012
Smalls
The Eden Ladin Group
09/17/2012
Smalls
The Aaron Parks Group
06/05/2012
Smalls
The Joe Sanders/Justin Brown Quartet
05/08/2012
Smalls
Marco Panascia NYC Unit
04/21/2012
Smalls
The Rodney Green Group
03/21/2012
Smalls
Joe Sanders & Infinity
02/22/2012
Smalls
The Eden Ladin Group
02/11/2012
Smalls
The Simona Premazzi Quartet
01/28/2012
Smalls
The Billy White Group
01/19/2012
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Quartet
12/20/2008
Smalls
The Ben Wolfe Sextet
12/19/2008
Smalls
The Ben Wolfe Sextet
04/10/2008
Smalls
The Dayna Stephens Trio
Upcoming Shows
Recent recipient of the number-two spot for the 2017 DownBeat Critics Poll in the category “Rising Star—Tenor Saxophone, Dayna Stephens has garnered critical acclaim over the years for his playing, compositions and arrangements. DownBeat’s James Hale describes Gratitude, the saxophonist/composer’s eighth release as a leader, as a “highly cinematic listening experience, full of roiling seas and shifting skies.” Brad Faberman sites Dayna as the June 2017 JazzTimes Editor’s Pick, writing, “His big, warm lines are full of notes and intent but also gusts of wind, bodies of water.” A review from JazzScene Magazine’s Alex W. Rodriguez praises the record’s distinctive personnel: “This album showcases some of today’s finest musicians at the height of their craft, anchored by Stephens’ humble magnetism. The musicians exude a patient, persistent quality in their collective exploration, with the melodies unfolding into searching improvisations throughout.”    Playing with pureness of intention, Dayna admits he’s always searching to find what’s “singable.” That search often results in live improvisations and written compositions that challenge traditional concepts of harmony, pushing phrasing and sending beautiful and unintentional melodies in unlikely directions. Dayna’s soulful lines have resonated through the halls of such internationally renowned venues as the Village Vanguard, Blue Note Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Yoshi’s, The Blue Whale, Marians Jazzroom in Switzerland, Blue Note Milano, Philharmonie de Paris, Le Duc des Lombards, Red Rocks and San Francisco Jazz Center—and recently earned him    Rhythmic dialogue excites the Brooklyn-born Bay Area-raised artist, as both an improviser and a written composer. His creative expression leads him to uncover different rhythmic interpretations of harmonic ideas as part of a spontaneous interchange with other players. These evolving interpretations help serve Dayna’s commitment to authenticity of the moment, whether he’s playing live or in the studio. And his rhythmic inquiry has earned him the attention and admiration of some of the music’s most beloved drummers—many of whom have collaborated with him on recordings, on the bandstand and on the road, including Brian Blade, Al Foster, Idris Muhammad, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Billy Hart, Marcus Gilmore, Bill Stewart, Marvin “Boogaloo” Smith, Eric Harland, Matt Slocum, Johnathan Blake, Jaimeo Brown, Victor Lewis, Lewis Nash, Jorge Rossy, Jeff Ballard and Justin Brown.    Dayna has traveled and recorded with a cross section of such distinctive voices, including pianists Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, Billy Childs, Geoffrey Keezer, Taylor Eigsti, Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Barron, Theo Hill, Gerald Clayton and Aaron Parks; trumpet players Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Sean Jones, Terell Stafford, Brian Lynch, Ambrose Akinmusire and Michael Rodriguez; saxophone players Wayne Shorter, Jaleel Shaw, Ben Wendel, Chris Potter, John Ellis and Walter Smith III; bass players Ben Street, Rufus Reid, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Joe Sanders, Linda Oh, Doug Weiss, Larry Grenadier and Harish Raghavan; vocalists Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens and Sachal Vasandani; and guitar players John Scofield, Julian Lage, Charles Altura, Mike Moreno, Lage Lund, Pete Bernstein and Carlos Santana.    To hear his music is to fall in love with whatever instrument Dayna uses to channel his ideas. Through a tendency toward experimenting with both tone and texture in a harmonic context, he embraces a range of instruments—and their varying degrees of warmth—including double bass. A master of tenor, soprano and baritone saxophones and, more recently, Nyle Steiner’s EWI (electric wind instrument), Dayna’s openness and sensitivity as an artist have allowed him to stretch as a composer and arranger. Through the years, he has earned opportunities to create and interpret pieces for, among other aggregations, San Francisco’s Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, Berklee College of Music and the Oakland East Bay Symphony—for the latter of which he wrote a wide-screen arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s “The Duke” that premiered at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre for its 2013 Celebration of the Music of Dave Brubeck Concert.    A graduate of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, where he studied under artistic icons Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, Dayna began his formal studies with a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston. As an undergraduate, he was diagnosed with the rare kidney disease focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). In June 2009, Dayna began a course of dialysis that lasted for six years, grounding him in the New York area and preventing him from touring internationally until his aunt stepped in to donate her kidney for a transplant in October 2015.      And with the release from physical suffering, arrives the jubilation and humble awareness of an interconnected self that helped shape Gratitude, Dayna’s first self-produced recording on his brand new label Contagious Music. Featuring compositions that share soulful and sophisticated melodies, including music from Aaron Parks, Pat Metheny and Dayna himself, Gratitude serves as a gentle and powerful awakening of a universal spirit in an era of division. Personnel includes Brad Mehldau, Julian Lage, Larry Grenadier and Eric Harland. Dayna’s label Contagious Music will be releasing pianist/composer Eden Ladin’s debut recording in October. For more information, visit www.daynastephens.net