Hot April Night

Early on during his concert Saturday night in the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., Neil Diamond asked how many people had gotten their tickets as Christmas presents. Half the 16,000 or so folks there cheered. I hollered out “anniversary, Neil!” The wait from October was worth it. My dear wife Karen can now cross seeing…

Andrew Grau feels the groove in hip-hop and jazz

The Grautet is about to record an album with a bunch of musicians from New York City making the most out of a day booked in a New Jersey studio. The people of upstate New York — Skaneateles and Oneonta, in particular — should take notice. The band leader of the Grautet is bass player…

Mark it Up brings Doyle to WAER for my podcast debut

There’s a new wrinkle to my work for Syracuse Public Media site waer.org. Add a Mark It Up in Syracuse podcast to my weekly community blog column. For the debut edition, I interviewed veteran Syracuse guitarist, arranger, band leader and more Mark Doyle in the WAER-FM 88.3 studios. He’s bringing his quite cool Guitar Noir…

Neil Leslie Diamond on The Blog of Funny Names

Why did I write about Neil Leslie Diamond for my end-of-March entry for the Blog of Funny Names? Well, Leslie as a middle name qualifies him. Kind of. And because … You can start reading my take on the singer, songwriter and guitarist here and then click below to make your way over to that…

Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, legends, will be coming to Syracuse in July

The names were announced for this July’s M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest and the top two were huge. Aretha Franklin will be singing on Saturday night, July 18, on the rolling hills of the campus of Onondaga Community College, and Wynton Marsalis will lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra the night of July 17. That’s…

Two songs, too little air time for Syracuse’s ‘Voice’ rep

It was Two and No Thank You for Syracuse area singer Josh Batstone on “The Voice.” For the second song in a row, the teen singer from Fulton, N.Y., turned in a performance that was whittled down to less than a minute of NBC singing competition air time instead of the full-blown drama afforded the…

Photo 101: A gallery for Sammy

The weekend assignment for Photography 101 was to set up a gallery. Friday night I shot plenty at the Syracuse Area Music Awards at the Palace Theatre. In fact, I had two previous years of iPhone photos from the Sammys stored in my iPad Air, too. Sammys Gallery, here we come. You can click any…

Catching up with Julia Goodwin’s story

I told you how excited I was about my latest piece of freelance writing for Central New York The Good Life Magazine. Baker High School junior Julia Goodwin’s smiling face makes the cover extremely attractive, does it not? And I think editor Linda Bien and graphic designer Peter Allen put together a most memorable package…

The past and the present embrace Syracuse’s big music

Generations of Syracuse music hugged Friday night at the Palace Theatre on James Street. Literally. Nick Zobrio, winner of the Best Jazz recording Sammys Award, couldn’t make the ceremony to honor the best, so he sent his father to read his hand-written note, which acknowledged his teachers, his parents and his siblings. Nick Frenay, winner…

CNYJO returns for a rare public performance

They enjoyed the vibe at the Oneida Scholastic Jazz Fest so much that the members of the Central New York Jazz Orchestra decided it was time to make their music for the public of Syracuse again. The cool ensemble will play at 4 p.m. Sunday at Jazz Central at 400 E. Washington St., Syracuse. The…