How Stilo Davis, a Jazz Saxophonist, Walked Into My Novel

In my novel Toward Bright Stars, a fictional character named Stilo Davis played saxophone with jazz musicians in the Howard Street clubs in Akron’s heyday in the 1930s. Being that the novel was set in the late 1980s, it would have been possible to have met an older person who had been acquainted with well-known jazz musicians such as Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday. After watching the 2021 movie The United States vs. Billie Holiday starring Andra Day, I wondered if Billie Holiday played “Strange Fruit” in Akron? It is quite probable. The Akron-Summit County Library has a book in its collection about the song and its connection to the civil rights movement. In addition, recently many artists have commemorated Billie Holiday with plays and performances in Akron.

According to a March 5, 2019 article in akronlife.com by Nicole Stempak, “Akron was home to African-Americans migrating north to look for work in the growing rubber industry. In a segregated Akron, Howard Street especially was a place where black-owned businesses — barbers, doctors, grocers — could prosper. It was also a destination for jazz.”

I am too young to remember this era, and I am 60, but I do remember the remnants of jazz in Akron with a bar in the Wallhaven area called Schwanee’s. At any rate, in my mind, this was the setting for Hal and Del’s last “date” in Akron before he left for Hollywood.

But back to Stilo. When I was writing the first draft of the novel, I had Del walking to Highland Square with Boris, Cordelia’s dog. Stilo Davis approached Del because he recognized Boris, and a conversation ensued. In pre-reading the novel, my daughter asked if Stilo was based on anyone I had known in Akron. I told her that literally Stilo, a fiction of my imagination, walked onto the page as a living character. He came from the depths of my experiences, a composite of people I know and had known. I recall a fiction writing professor (Dr. Bob Pope) in my Akron U undergrad days say that when a character “walks onto the page, let them breathe.”

My daughter agreed that Stilo is one of the best characters in the novel. To that, I felt very happy because most of my characters are based on real people. I think that’s what authors do: we filter our lives and experiences onto the page, fictionalizing them along the way to make them fit the setting, the other characters, and the plot.

In addition to Stilo’s background in the jazz world, he is a recovering alcoholic, active in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting which is held at Akron’s Stan Hywet Hall. I’m unsure if such a meeting exists, but another piece of Akron’s rich history is the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous on the grounds of the property. Although not in AA recovery myself, I am close to many people who are in AA recovery and through close reading of the novel, you will hear Cordelia’s wisdom when she uses Alanon teachings to relate better to Stilo and her own past life as a co-dependent—for which I am recovering!

Stilo becomes a father to Del as Jim Dandy, her own biological father, struggles with mental health issues. Here is the scene with Stilo telling Del about a vision he had of Bill W., one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Stilo says, “…I stayed sober. I’m breaking the cycle, Del. I still credit his visit with saving my sobriety, saving my life, but the ancestors were in pain. That’s all they knew.”

“Ancestors can cause you to drink?”

“Let me tell you, Del. We carry these family issues with us until we break the cycle. That’s what you must do.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I would have died. I decided to bring peace to my life.”

Stilo, wherever you came from in the depths of my subconscious, thank you for coming to Highland Square and meeting Delanie and Boris. You bring racial diversity and a great message of recovery to the novel.

If you read the novel Toward Bright Stars, you will see and hear more from Stilo Davis.

Jazz saxophonist walks into my novel