Best pop: Kristin Turo; Kim Monroe and Chris Eves; Tommy Connors; South Bay; White Picket Fence.
Best country: Christopher Ames; The Easy Ramblers; Greg Hoover; Just Joe.
Best jazz: Tom Bronzetti Band; Kevin Dorsey Collective.
Best metal: One Last Shot; Earth Crisis; Shooting Hemlock; Torment the Vein; Feeding Affliction.
Best blues: Mark Cloutier; Master Thieves; The Chris Terra Band; Mark Doyle and the Maniacs.
Best alternative: 4 Point 0; The Scarlet Ending; God Astray; Catastrophe Me!; Independent Louis.
Best hip-hop/rap: Sophistafunk; DeCoy; Powder Jay; Double-J/A.O.D. Team; Anormous.
Best rock: Silent Fury; Stone Soul Foundation; Elephant Mountain; Just a Memory; Michael P. Ryan.
Best R&B: Dave Hanlon’s Cookbook; Isreal Hagan; Brownskin.
Best Americana: Chad Bradshaw Band; Stiv Morgan; Dan Duggan; Andrew and Noah Van Norstrand; Loren Barrigar.
Best recording, other style: William Nicholson; Leper Pony; Turnip Stampede; Samba Laranja; Ceili Rain.
The Syracuse Area Music Awards will honor regional recording artists in 11 categories at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, in the Oncenter Grand Ballroom at the corner of Harrison and Montgomery streets, downtown. Performers at the awards show include the bands 805 and The Rods. Sammys Hall of Famer Isreal Hagan will open with a solo acoustic set.
Admission to the awards show costs $15.
The Sammys Hall of Fame inductions will take place the night before, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, upstairs at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, 246 W. Willow St., at the corner of North Franklin St., downtown. Admission costs $20 on Thursday.
David “Rock” Feinstein, guitarist for The Rods, and Dave Porter, frontman for 805, are two of this year’s Sammys Hall of Fame inductees. Also entering the Sammys hall will be blues singer Marcia Hagan, broadcaster Rick Gary and music educator and saxophonist Joe Riposo. The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra will receive the Sammys Lifetime Achievement Award.
For the second year, the Sammys will be staged as part of the two-day Music Industry Conference; micnys.com.
For Sammys info, dial 247-1718; or visit SyracuseAreaMusic.com.
Voices at Palace next month
The New York Voices, the vocalese quartet which formed in 1988 at Ithaca College, will perform a “Jazz Christmas 2011” concert at Eastwood’s Palace Theater, 2378 James St., at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, to benefit the Dunbar Association of Syracuse. The Grammy-winning singing group has released seven CDs including Sing! Sing! Sing! And A Day Like This. The quartet, which will be accompanied here by a trio of piano, bass and drums, features Peter Eldridge, Lauren Kinhan, Darmon Meader and Kim Nazarian.
Tickets cost $25 and $35, or you can pay $50 and enjoy a pre-concert reception.
For info, visit Dunbarassociation.org, or call 506-8592.
Dunbar ‘saves lives’
This year marks the third year in a row that Syracuse Jazz Fest impresario Frank Malfitano has partnered with the Dunbar Association to produce a holiday concert at the Palace.
In 2009, Freddy Cole headlined and the concert raised more than $3,000 for Dunbar’s youth outreach services. Last year, Spyro Gyra drew a near-sell-out crowd and the 93-year-old South Side association banked a cool ten grand!
“We are building,” said Dunbar’s interim director, Louella Williams.
Malfitano praised Dunbar’s efforts such as “Each One Teach One,” in which strengthened the self-esteem of more than 190 local city kids. “These people are saving lives,” Malfitano said. “They’re saving the lives of Syracuse people who are falling between the cracks.”
Martinis for the Mission
The Rescue Mission’s Project Drumstick will get a shot in the arm during happy hour from 5 to 9 p.m. this Monday, Nov. 14, at the World Lounge and Martini Bar in Hanover Square.
Lounge manager Scott Chambers will donate a portion of the bar’s proceeds and 100 percent of the tips he pulls in that night. To sweeten the pie, vocalist Sean Halloran will entertain at the World Lounge that night, singing tunes by artists such as the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison.
The World is located 134 E. Water St., downtown; 422-3404.
