Jazz Jam
Cafe 9
New Haven
June 14, 2025
Gary Grippo and his trio took the stage Saturday afternoon downtown at Cafe Nine. They were the feature that week for the regular jazz jam, a free, all-ages open session that stands as one of the bar’s oldest traditions. The trio were obvious pros, staying in tune with every little riff, going hard with ease and, above everything, leaning into the moment with each other.
I met 24-year-old Sax, who plays sax, by the sign-up sheet for the open jam and asked what he thought of the group. He said they sounded great together. “Can’t wait to play with them.”
That’s the thing about the open jams: You can spend the first hour geeking over the rhythms and coordination of the feature band. Then you get a chance to join in the madness.
“We’re going to take a short break, and then all heck is gonna break out,” Grippo said before opening up the stage. He welcomed jazz players in the crowd to come sing, dance, juggle, play harmonica — whatever they felt moved to share.
The sign-up sheet asked for name, age, and tune choice, which was optional. Whether the players chose a jazz standard or not, they had to be prepared to have fun with it. The name of the game was improvisation.
Grippo called out names, and band members cycled in and out as the on-stage ensemble grew into an ever-changing entity. He referred to it as “sitting in.”
“Lot of history here,” said Sax, who was born and raised in New Haven, and playing saxophone “about as long as I’ve been walking.” "Sax" is the latest stage name of Damani Ben-Salhuddin, AKA. D$ the Sax God. He came up in multiple iterations of the local music scene, often playing with legendary drummer Jesse “The Cheese” Hameen, his cousin. Now he’s ready to push it to the max.
“I’m trying to have the craziest year of all time,” he told me. With 20 albums under his belt already, of genres spanning hip hop, jazz, and more, he plans to go all out this year and retire on July 26, 2026, his golden birthday — his age will be the same number as his birthdate.
The bar and band alike were full of nothing but encouragement for the musicians brave enough to sit in. The audience paid close attention to solos, singing and grooving along.
“Wanna do another one? Do another one,” Grippo said to one guest, with the generosity and easygoing nature of a man who’s serious about his chill. “Everyone gets two tunes, until they throw me out.”
Soon it was Sax’s turn to get on stage. The band took a step back musically, as they did with every guest, to showcase Sax’s chops. Sax and the others on stage played off each others’ talents, listening to the needs of the music and finding the right gaps to fill.
Trilling harder and harder to Art Blakely & the Jazz Messengers’ 1950s bebop jazz standard “Moanin’,” Sax seemed to tell the old legends: message received.
When other musicians came up to jam, Sax stood to the side with another saxophonist, Mark Kaplan, making room on stage and moving into a supporting role with grace.
Barry Ries, who had played the drums in Grippo’s trio earlier, sat in the crowd facing the musicians and chimed in with trumpet here and there. The music was coming from more than one direction, and so were the possibilities of creation.
Not even a simple reporter could pass through without being part of the night’s offerings. “OK, New Haven Independent!” Chris DePino said as I came back from the bathroom. He had played a soulful harmonica earlier, as Grippo foretold. Musicians flagged me down to tell me about upcoming news (Kaplan is playing at Best Video on July 16 with Allen Lowe, and Golf Cove in North Haven on Thursday; Sax is dropping an album on July 26). Cafe Nine might have had a corner stage ready for action, but Saturday’s jazz jam was the kind of afternoon where everywhere was the stage.
