Blue Note Jazz Festival takes on new form in Napa this year. Here’s why

The Napa Valley offshoot of the Blue Note Jazz Festival won’t be held in Napa County this year, at least in the same form as the past two years.

Instead, Blue Note producers are putting on The Black Radio Experience from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1 at the Meritage Resort and Spa. The event will feature three stages and over 30 artists — including John Legend, Jill Scott and André 3000.

Steven Bensusan, president of Blue Note Entertainment Group, said Blue Note isn’t putting on the Jazz Festival this year because they couldn’t figure out dates that would work at Silverado Resort and Spa. That’s where the festival moved last year, after the inaugural event was held at Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena.

Bensusan described the new event as a boutique, high-end festival that combines music with hospitality, along with food and wine experiences. And he added that Blue Note is hoping the new format becomes a yearly occurrence.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to go back and try to do a bigger event in the future,” Bensusan said. “We’re still looking at those opportunities, and the right venue for that.”

There will be around 5,000 people attending the Black Radio Experience each day, Bensusan said, about half the attendance of the Jazz Festivals in past years.

But the intent is to create a more intimate space, somewhat mimicking what’s done at Blue Note jazz clubs around the world.

“You’re seeing a big name in a small environment,” Bensusan said. “That’s what I think people want nowadays; a unique experience like this that includes food and wine and everything else that Napa has to offer when they’re not at the festival.”

The Meritage as a venue also brings a host of benefits that compliment the type of experience Blue Note is working to create, according to Bensusan.

“We have the opportunity to use their food and wine center, their terrace out in the vines, to create these food and beverage experiences,” he said.

Ken Tesler, general manager of Blue Note Napa, said past concerts at the Meritage — the Blue Note Summer Sessions — have been successful, and the venue allows a greater connection to hospitality services.

“This year we literally took over both of the Meritage’s hotels on either side of the street and packaged every room,” Tesler said.

The venue also isn’t located near any residential areas. Resident complaints have consistently dogged Napa’s music festivals, including the Jazz Festival.

Prior to it coming to the Silverado last year, a group of residents raised concerns about fire risk, noise, traffic issues and other impacts associated with the festival being held there for three days.

But following that weekend, Tesler said the festival went well, and Napa County officials confirmed there weren’t reports of any major problems.

Perhaps the most significant impact of neighbor complaints was the Oxbow RiverStage concert series being put on hiatus by its producers this year.

The series — put on by Tesler and partners Blue Note New York and Another Planet Entertainment LLC — has consistently drawn noise complaints from residents, particularly from those living in the eastern Alta Heights neighborhood, particularly during a meeting last year that included racial remarks.

The producers responded with various strategies, including turning the stage around to face downtown Napa in 2022, only to turn it back around in 2023. This year, the producers opted not to seek renewal of the city license, and the series has been put on hiatus.

Tesler said he was fed up with the negativity from a small group of neighbors; that it made him not want to ask for the license this year.

“I’m working very hard to do as much music as I can here in Napa,” Tesler said. “But we do things in places in where we won’t disturb neighbors.”

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com .