A Friendly Five

It’s a Thanksgiving Homecoming Reunion with a ’70s Blast theme Back in the 1980s, his name was “DJ Grand Electric Shock” when he used to DJ at Top Cats, Gardenia and Nowhere City. Shock was widely known then because he had a reputation for playing good music and promoting “positive events.”

Local Starlight Band brings new energy to well-recognized songs As many of you may already know, I play in a band. For those of you who don’t, the name of my band is the Soft Spoken Band, or SSB. The SSB has been in existence without pause since 1984. Being around for almost 30 years, we’ve seen a few changes. …

Saxophonist, vocalists catch attention with their strong musical performances I ran into Pat Odom about a month or so ago in the supermarket. Pat was my daughter Maricia Danielle’s chaperone back in 2003 when she won first place in the local ACT-SO competition in the vocal music category. The win allowed her to travel to a national competition in Miami. …

National act Garland Jeffreys to perform at historic Palace Theatre on April 20 Over the past couple of years, A Friendly Five column has spotlighted many groups, bands, individual musicians and singers. With each story we have tried to share some insights with our readers as to the variety of musical styles and talents in our city. Occasionally we have …

‘A lot of young girls don’t get the encouragement needed to pursue it’ As March of each year rolls around, we start to think about the impact of women on our world. Women have been leaders in just about all aspects of modern society, including politics, business and religion. Music is no different. For Women’s History Month, it is fitting …

Emmanuel Atkins and Eddie Brown bring back memories of their legendary time together For this column, I thought it would be a good idea to write about a musical organization with some local history since this is Black History Month. I wanted to write about an organization that could take us back a few years but still have relevance today. …

A Friendly Five columnist catches up with local musicians who’ve taken to the road Syracuse has been home to a score of bands, musicians and singers over the years. Some of them have been really good and some, well… you know what momma said, “If you can’t say nothin’ good ….” A lot of the talented ones are still participating …

South Sider invites in musicians to sing, record and mostly have fun Meet Ozell Cooper. Ozell lives on the South Side. He is a musician and singer and a longtime self-employed carpenter. Ozell used his skills to build a studio in his basement and a rehearsal hall in his garage. He christened the rehearsal space “Coop’s Boom Boom Room.” The …

Different music flavors meshed on the Pan-African Village Stage at NYS Fair Each year, the Great New York State Fair blooms in Syracuse for 12 days. With it comes the Pan-African Village — a make-shift village constructed of plywood and tents. The village draws upon fair-goers to provide an economic boost to entrepreneurs that sell food, art, clothing, jewelry and …

Syracuse has abundant musical talent, but much of it is underexposed. Syr JAMS’ Music Stand — which stands for Syracuse’s Joined Artists Musicians and Singers’ Music Stand — is a new feature created by The Stand’s A Friendly Five columnist Reggie Seigler and intended to be a platform for talent. This video of Syr JAMS’ Music Stand features a song …