The 15th annual Taste of Syracuse will draw thousands of hungry visitors to Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse on Friday and Saturday, June 1 and 2.
More than 100 restaurants, beverage vendors and exhibitors will spill out onto the city streets all around the square. Tasty tunes will ring out from three stages culminating with Under the Gun at 9:30 p.m. Friday on the Volkswagen Main Stage and Prime Time at the same time on the VitaFit Clinton Square Stage.
Several national touring acts headline on Saturday when the festival celebrates Blues, Brews and Barbecue on the main stage. The music starts at 1 p.m. with the Perry-Mulhauser band, the Fabulous Ripcords, the Tyler Shakedown Band, Duke Robillard, Elephant Mountina and, at 9 p.m., .38 Special. Admission is free.
Pro Baseball: Louisville Bats at ABS
After swinging through the Midwest this week, the Syracuse Chiefs return to Alliance Bank Stadium at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, to face the Louisville Bats. Games against the Bats are also scheduled at ABS at 7 p.m. June 6-8, before the Lehigh Valley IronPigs arrive at 7 p.m. June 9.
Louisville is the top farm team of the Cincinnati Reds while the Chiefs are affiliated with the Washington Nationals.
Field-level ticket prices at ABS range from $9 to $20, while upper-deck seats cost $8, and $4 for kids and seniors. Parking costs $5 per vehicle; 474-7833.
Music: Baby Soda Jazz Band
When you hear single-string bass player Peter Ford sing “Digga Digga Doo,” you know you’re in for something special.
Sporting a snappy vest and an art deco tie, Ford coordinates the calendar for Brooklyn’s Baby Soda Jazz Band. He also handles most of the vocal chores and lays down the bottom for the band’s traditional sound.
Ford brings the Baby Soda Jazz Band back to Central New York for a concert at 8 p.m. Friday, June 1, at Kellish Hill Farm Music Barn, 3192 Pompey Center Road, just south of Manlius. Admission costs $10; 682-1578.
Led by banjoman Jared Engel, the Baby Soda Jazz Band also features trombonist Emily Asher, clarinetist Adrian Cunningham, trumpeter Gordon Au, drummer Kevin Dorn and, of course, Peter Ford on his unusual box bass.
Salt City Jazz Collective
On the first Wednesday of each month, the Salt City Jazz Collective plays two solid sets of hard-swinging charts from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Syracuse Suds Factory, South Clinton and Walton streets, in Armory Square. The Collective is led by trombonist Joe Colombo and spotlights top Syracuse musicians such as Joe Riposo, Jeff Stockham, Angelo Candela and Tom Witkowski.
During its jazz happy hour, the Suds Factory sells $2.50 Molsons, $2.50 house drafts and double well drinks. Admission is always free at the Suds Factory; 471-2253.
Syracuse Community Choir
The Syracuse Community Choir presents its annual Summer Solstice Ice-Cream Social and concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 3, at Plymouth Congregational Church, downtown at 232 E. Onondaga St. Sunday’s concert program is named “Change.” Ice cream will be served at 3 p.m. with the concert to follow at 4 p.m.
“Change” is dedicated to the memory of Audrey Shenandoah, Onondaga Nation Clan Mother and longtime friend of the choir. Special guests will be the Dream Freedom Revival, and guest soloist will be Nottingham High School alumna Gabrielle Gorman.
“Join us for a lovely summer afternoon of cool desserts and sweet singing,” said choir director Karen Mihalyi.
Admission costs $12 to $25, on a sliding scale; 428-8151.
The Rhythm-Airs
For the past half-decade the Rhythm-Airs big band has played its weekly shows at McNamara’s Pub in Camillus, but beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, the band will move its popular Hump Day dances to the Solvay Moose Club, 1121 Milton Ave.; 488-3477.
Led by trumpeter Maureen Clum, the orchestra performs Swing Era standards from 7 to 9 p.m. every Wednesday. Admission costs $5 per person, $7 per couple; food and drinks available.
Marcia Rutledge Trio
Vocalist Marcia Rutledge will sing big band standards and boss nova tunes accompanied by keyboardist Andrew Carroll and drummer Greg Evans from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, June 1, at Sitrus on the Hill, at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel.
“We like to mix it up,” Rutledge said, “so there’ll be a range of jazz including some 1970s pop, reconfigured, and bossa styles and R&B flavors, along with, of course, swing tunes from the Great American Songbook.”
CNY Jazz Central hosts the Friday evening series called Jazz @Sitrus which concludes June 15. The Sheraton University Hotel is located at 801 University Ave., on the SU Hill. Admission is free; 475-3000.
Stage: ‘Tomb with a View’
Bob Greene’s Acme Mystery Theatre Co. presents “A Tomb with a View,” an interactive comedy, at 7 p.m. Thursdays through June 28, at the Spaghetti Warehouse.
The mega-corporation Arrested Developments has come to turn the old Possum Estate into a shopping mall. Problem is the estate was the site of an historic tragic mining disaster. The zombie descendants of the ill-fated miners have hired an attorney and are planning a class-action lawsuit. And so the fun begins…
The Spaghetti Warehouse is at 689 N. Clinton St., near the Inner Harbor; $32.50 includes meal, tax and tip; 475-1807.
