Music
Whether your interest is blues, folk, rock, hip-hop, jazz or whatever, Buffalo has something for you. Buffalo has it all—not Lancaster, not Depew, not East Aurora, not Williamsville, not Cheektowaga. Buffalo. Got it?
It’s certainly nice to see a few new names on the music scene. Not that we have anything against Buffalo’s gifted veteran players or our long-standing music venues, but new blood is necessary and is good for everyone. The Town Ballroom on Main Street opened this year with concert promoters Artie Kwitchoff and Donny Kutzbach and attorney/guitarist Michael Lee Jackson running the show. The Town Ballroom easily grabbed a nomination for Best Live Music Venue and sidled alongside mainstays like Nietzsche’s, Mohawk Place and the Sportsmen’s Tavern.
Jesse Zephle, owner of the former Second Skin clothing and sex toy shop, opened Club Diablo on Washington Street last year and is enjoying instant success. Club Diablo received nominations in both the Best New Club and Best Dance Club categories. And speaking of dance clubs, Club Marcella also has a new look, a new location and a spot on the list of nominees in several categories. Another new club nominee is Allen Street Hardware, a successful bar, restaurant and live music venue opened in Allentown by Mark Goldman, the man cited most frequently for starting the resurgence of Chippewa Street. Goldman has also opened an Italian restaurant across from Hardware called Joey’s Hard Times Café with Buffalo renaissance man, chef, actor, playwright and horn player Joe Giambra in the kitchen whipping up homemade dishes.
A new face on the jazz scene and a Best Jazz Band nominee is the acoustic gypsy-jazz playing of Babik, who hold down Wednesday nights at Allen Street Hardware. The four-man combo, which takes its name from the son of Belgian swing-era guitarist extraordinaire Django Rheinhardt, will be playing at the Artvoice Best of Buffalo Party this Monday, May 8, at the Town Ballroom, 6-9pm. Also a jazz nominee and a relatively new band on the scene is Peggy Farrell & the Ladies First Big Band. The Ladies First band may be new, but Peggy Farrell spent years playing with jazz piano legend Al Tinney, who died 2002. As one ballot put it, “Peggy is 75 years old and still cookin’.” And she’s not the oldest one in the band either. The Ladies First Big Band ranges in age from about 20 to close to 90. One sweet old gal, tenor saxophonist Fran Scharett, toured with the USO during World War II and entertained the troops with big band music when swing was the hot new thing.
The Skiffle Minstrels, led by actor Paul Todaro on bass, are a new breakout act in the Best Folk/Acoustic Group category. With five of the six players in the band coming out of Buffalo’s acting community, and bringing to the stage rarely seen instruments like the accordion, harmonica and fiddle, they make a colorful cast of characters hooting, singing and thrashing their way through a mix of honky-tonk and other classic Americana.
A particularly interesting Artvoice reader nomination for Best Vocalist is the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus. This chorus of almost 50 singers will also be performing at the Artvoice Best of Buffalo Party on Monday. They will take the stage immediately following some words from Mayor Byron Brown. We are certainly glad that the mayor of Buffalo has decided to come check out the Best of Buffalo. It makes perfect sense—something we’re not used to seeing at City Hall.
Best Blues Band
Willie & the Reinhardts
The Jony James Blues Band
Harmonica Dean & the Blue Lights
Doug Yeomans & the Lo Blu Flame
Billy McKewen & the Soul Invaders
Best Club DJ
Ska Bean
Ry Diggs
Old Skool @ Diablo
Lil Joe @ Club Marcella’s
Jessica @ Roxy’s Green Room
Charles Masters (tied for 5th)
Best Dance Club
Roxy’s Green Room
OPM Lounge
La Luna
Club Marcella
Club Level
Club Diablo
Best Folk/Acoustic Group
Tom Stahl & the Dangerfields
The Skiffle Minstrels
The Reminders
Steve Roth & Meredith Brown
Ani DiFranco
Best Hip-Hop Act
Rhyson Hall with Type
Pseudo Slang
Milkfat
Baby Steps
Amilcar Hill
Best Jazz Band
Them Jazzbeards
Taylor Made Jazz
Peggy Farrell & the Ladies First Big Band
Jazz Line Quartet & Allen Street Jazz Band
Babik
Best Live Music Venue
Town Ballroom
Thursday in the Square
Sportsmen’s Tavern
Nietzsche’s
Mohawk Place
Icon
Best Musician
Rob Lynch
Marty Peters
John Schmitt
David A. Moore
Adam Zadok
Best New Club
New Marcella’s
Hush
Club Diablo
Allen Street Hardware
Adonia’s
Best Rock Band
Tom Stahl & the Dangerfields
Stemm
More Than Me
Jackdaw
Hit’n’Run
Eve’s Apple
Best Vocalist
Tom Stahl
Paul Todaro
Mark Valentino
Lance Diamond
Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus
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