Grammy nominated sax player comes home to Maywood to help locals work on their chops

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

A cassette tape of Wayne Shorter’s “Native Dancer” was all it took to hook D-Erania Stampley on her future career path, though she didn’t know it at the time.

A shy, musically talented kid from Maywood, Stampley couldn’t name the instrument Shorter played on the Latin jazz-fusion album when she heard it in the ‘80s, but she was certain she had to find it — and had to play it.

With Shorter’s prowess on the tenor saxophone as a guide, Stampley went on to master the higher and brighter-toned alto sax. And now, with two CDs, a Grammy nomination and multiple tours under her belt, Stampley is bringing it all back home.

Hoping to make it easier for kids and adults to find their hidden talents, she is opening her own music school in the near western suburb on Saturday.

“This is my hometown, and we’ve never really had a lot of programs like what we’re bringing now with the music school for this particular area,” Stampley said. “Beyond that, throughout the years I’ve been able to see how programs ... really helped young people to develop their hidden talents and go on and do great things.”

Grammy-nominated saxophonist D-Erania Stampley poses for a portrait in Jazz Desires Artistic Center in Maywood.

Jazz Desires, at 1213 S. 17^th Ave, will open to the public Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. Stampley hopes it will help make up for cuts that schools have made in arts programs and give aspiring musicians an outlet.

Stampley has seen first hand the need for such programs. Her son, Jahari, is a pianist who combined his own talent of playing by ear with music programs like the one she’s hoping to create to become a well-known pianist. He recently won the American Jazz Pianist Competition’s Bösendorfer prize.

Her own road to a music career started when she heard Shorter when she was 18 or 19, she says. As a kid, she picked up music by ear by way of listening to her mother, who played piano and organ in their church.

Stampley, born Donella, would pick up the alto saxophone after finding one in her parent’s attic — one that belonged to an older brother — and, after getting it refurbished, taught herself to play for the most part, producing rich velvety notes akin to Shorter’s.

Stampley had thought of opening a music school for a while. The Jazz Desires space started as her mother’s beauty salon. The single, dark raspberry-colored room of the music school boasts four keyboards sitting across from a glossy maple-hued baby grand Howard piano, along with four guitars.

D-Erania Stampley plays the guitar in Jazz Desires Artistic Center, 1213 S. 17th Ave. in Maywood.

Kids and adults will be able to take group classes taught by music professionals in those instruments as well as percussion at $60 for five weeks though the school will also work with low-income families “so that no one is turned away,” Stampley said. There will also be individual, private lessons by appointment that will run at $20 per class.

Maywood Mayor Edwenna Perkins sang the school’s — and Stampley’s — praises.

“It will have a big effect [on the community] because music enhances the children’s ability to learn, and the more music these children get the higher their IQs will be which will help enhance the schools,” Perkins said. “[Stampley] is an awesome young lady. She’s been here in the community and she’s done various activities to enhance the Village of Maywood.”

Though students will be taught more genres than just jazz, Stampley hopes to one day be able to offer jazz youth ensembles and to open the second floor of the building for more playing space and a studio engineering classes as well as a theater if they’re able to expand to that point.

D-Erania Stampley plays the saxophone in Jazz Desires Artistic Center.

For now, she’s focusing on getting people signed up and providing an outlet.

“It’s like a cultural oasis that we’re bringing to the community,” Stampley said. “I love it. It sounds like we’re creating an umbrella [group], where people can come and enjoy music through workshops as well as a place where adults and kids can come to learn an instrument and explore the creativity they have inside them.”