By Ande Jacobson
Over the years, I’ve written several articles promoting the annual holiday tradition – San Jose’s Saxophone Christmas (or SaXmas for short). Saxophone Christmas is the brainchild of founder Ray Bernd, a man who is a walking saxophone encyclopedia and strives to bring saxophonists together to share their love of this unique and often misunderstood family of instruments. While not exactly a flash mob in the traditional sense, SaXmas is a one day festival of holiday music to brighten the season. The players gather in the morning to renew old friendships and spend a couple of hours together playing through a set of holiday tunes, most of which are arranged for this momentous ensemble by Ray himself. After a short break, the group then plays two free concerts in the local area that afternoon. Ray always tries to schedule the earlier concert at an outdoor venue, and the second concert at an indoor location. That way even if the weather doesn’t cooperate, there will be at least one concert, and with any luck, two. The San Jose SaXmas is always on the third Saturday of December. This year that puts the 29th annual event on 16 December 2023. The San Jose SaXmas concerts will take place as follows:
- San Jose’s Christmas in the Park from 2-3pm, weather permitting
- Eastridge Mall from 5-6pm no matter the weather
For those in the Sacramento area, there’s a SaXmas for you as well! The 11th annual Sacramento SaXmas concerts (both inside) will take place on 2 December 2023 as follows:
- KP International Market – Rancho Cordova (inside the market – by the food court) 2-3pm
- Sunrise Mall – (inside mall – near entrance of Macy’s south) 5-6pm
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