Old School Sunday producer/host Dr. Rick Wright (from North Carolina) meets up with saxophonist Ronnie Laws (from Texas) backstage at the 2013 Syracuse Jazz Festival.
Sons of the South: Friends & Strangers
July 7th, 2013Extension: Jazz Fest, Day 2
July 6th, 2013
Napoleon Murphy Brock of the Grandmothers of Invention and Festival Producer Frank Malfitano hug it out during a lengthy rain delay.
At Day Two of the Syracuse Jazz Festival the weather almost trumped the music. After lightning flashes, a near monsoon, and baseball-length rain delay, however the music continued and the GrandMothers of Invention (formed in 2002 from Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention) gave those remaining a high-impact show.
Earlier in the day, Sophistafunk and the Yellowjackets, as well as Giacomo Gates, were on stage.
William Kennedy, Drummer, Yellowjackets
Adam Gold, Keyboardist, Sophistafunk
Don Preston, who started with Frank Zappa in 1967, is showing no signs of slowing down on this “One Size Fits All” US Tour. He came to the Syracuse show from Chapel Hill, NC. Tomorrow the GrandMothers of Invention play Annapolis, then NYC, before heading back Upstate to Rochester on July 10.
WAEF FM 88’s GM Joe Lee brings on the Yellowjackets.
Sophista-Fan
Piano tuner Kenny Williams has been working festivals and concerts in Syracuse for more than a half century.
Napoleon Murphy Brock (left),who started with Zappa in 1974 and now is the lead vocalist for the GrandMothers of Invention, shows off his Suavenicity during an opening number.
Dimension: Jazz Fest, Day 1
July 5th, 2013
Ben Jaffe, Creative Director, Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Day One of the 2013 Syracuse Jazz Festival at Jamesville Beach featured The Doobie Brothers, Kat Wright & the Indomitable Soul Band, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and a fireworks display to celebrate July 4th. Preservation dedicated their set to the memory of New Orleans icon Lionel Batiste.
Taking it all in
Mark Braud (PHJB)
Joe Lastie, Jr. (PHJB)
Kat Wright & The Indomitable Soul Band
Pat Simmons (Doobie Brothers)
Charlie Gabriel (PHJB)
Doobie Brothers from some other mothers
Working (out) Lunch
July 4th, 2013
Free Zumba Class, Wednesdays during the lunch hour (Clinton Square)
How’s this for a lunch date.
Metro Fitness, under the direction of Randy Sabourin, has partnered with the City to offer free Zumba classes every Wednesday this summer (from 12:15 to 12:45) in Clinton Square. Sabourin has been a personal fitness instructor downtown for about 20 years. He hopes the Zumba class and partnership will help get Central New York residents, especially those living and working downtown, in better shape.
The Metro Fitness club is located in Salina Place a few blocks from Clinton Square.
Zumba Instructor Lynn Underwood sets the pace.
Despite serious humidity and hazy sun, men, women and children decided to sweat and dance their way thru lunch.
According to Sabourin, the class yesterday was one of the smaller classes so far (more than a dozen participants). The classes began last month and will run thru Labor Day.
Randy Sabourin takes a video of the Wednesday class in Clinton Square.
Street Style
July 2nd, 2013
Safety Dance
Orange Power
July 1st, 2013
Team Building: The Vision Center
The Gift of Service
June 27th, 2013
The former and current head of The Syracuse Rescue Mission (Clarence Jordan and Alan Thornton) talk at the Vision Center on South Salina Street following the 2013 Teen Tech graduation ceremony.
Throwback Thursday: Bruce Almighty
June 27th, 2013
Comedian Bruce Bruce will return to Syracuse this weekend for a series of shows at the Funnybone. This photo is from a show he did at the Landmark theater about a decade ago produced by the Pride of Syracuse Newspaper.
Fringe Factor
June 24th, 2013
Fringe Technical Director Gabriel Pinto occupies Saturday night with a sax solo.
Finally a cross-town collaboration between Lemoyne and SU (well,sort of). Le Moyne alums Jacob Ellison and Justin Sullivan used creativity and crowd funding to pull together the inaugural Syracuse Fringe Festival last weekend, and it was held at the Community Folk Art Center along the Connective Corridor. The event featured three days of multi-disciplinary artistic endeavors. We checked out the final day of the program, which featured David Doyle, Ruth Arena and Anna Phillips. Fringe was very reminiscent of the THINC Sideshow parties from a decade or so ago (except the demographic for the Fringe was slightly older).
Live Art: Body Painting
What was most surprising on Saturday was to watch Phillips, who is the artistic equivalent of a love child between Missy Elliot (always ahead of the curve) and Steven Wright (wry humor), do a comedy show in the Black Box Theater and smoothly transition into a monologue about her life that was more compelling than a episode of HBO’s In Treatment.
Was it Something She Said? Anna Phillips kept it real for Spatial Profiling.
Not that it wasn’t good, just unexpected. We look forward to Anna’s upcoming gigs, where she will bring the noise again with jokes at two shows locally: Chicks are Funny and Guns n’ Syrup.
On the Strength
June 24th, 2013
Mercy Works Director Gina Rivers prepares Synergy students during their orientation last week. The event was held at the Vision Center on South Salina Street.