Napa Valley Jazz Getaway

Day one
Already had a great day of wine, food and music!!! Based at the Westin verasa
And branched out to yountville and oakville this is a festival with daily events that complement and enhance your time in wine country. Updates to come as my week proceeds
Tonight was a dinner & show at black stallion winery .. Music by Michael Lington and brian Culbertson
Food by tra vigne ... Oh so yum!!!

Night 1 ~ missed 1st half of Funk Night due to Warriors playoff game. Caught Average White Band's performance and headliner, Larry Graham. Lincoln Center is nice venue, intimate, we had excellent seats.
Show was entertaining and fun. (to be continued)

I have been attending the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway since 2013. This was a birthday present to myself in 2013, and ever since then it has been The Best Vacation Ever!! I heard from my friends that had attended the first Getaway in 2012 that Brian Culbertson took such good care of his guests, the venues were beautiful and was so much fun, I had to check it out! I live in New York and yes, I flew across country to California because I love Smooth Jazz music, and I love wine. Combining both wine and music together for 5 days, Brian has created an incredible experience that only gets better with time. I rave about it to all my friends and family. The Jazz Getaway is so incredible; we had to create new words like fantablous and beyond-beyond!!

I am a huge lover of Smooth Jazz music, so to vacation in a setting where I get to experience top-notch entertainment, get to sample amazing fine wines, be surrounded by the incredible Napa Valley scenery, and reunite with my jazzy Cali family and make new wonderful friends, Napa Valley Jazz Getaway is THE place to be! Brian Culbertson and his Team are THE best in Customer Service, bar none. I cannot say enough. We were SO well taken care of.
Some of my favorite highlights: This year's welcome dinner was hosted at the Westin Verasa which is the Host hotel. It was beautiful night filled with 150 guests, wonderful catered food served family style, Cecil Ramirez and Eric Darius performed! and surprise guests!! we enjoyed the food and music and it turned into a PARTY! Our First Day was Jazz Legends night, Al Jarreau and Raul Midon performances were phenomenal! The Friday night concert is known as The Friday Funk Night, and the Family Stone set it off! They took everyone back to the beautiful funky music of the 70's. Every year exceeds my expectations. The Wine-Downs are held before the night events, they were enjoyable, and the participating wineries come to the GUESTS !! 8-11 wineries each day! That is amazing! The Late-Night hangs after the concerts are so much fun, The DJ's returned this year and we had 3 nights of dancing! We have our grown-up party where we danced the night away; we danced the Soul Train line, the Wobble (also known as the Napa Wobble!) There are so many activities to see and do, or you can relax at the hotel and enjoy the amenities, or sight see the beautiful Napa Valley and with our Gold Passes the guests were able to get special rates on tastings, which made it more appealing to venture and try out the many wineries Napa Valley had to offer.

On day 3, Kenny Lattimore's acoustic performance at the Chimney winery was an intimate gathering. This was an incredible and emotion-filled performance. Afterwards, at the Wine-Down event at the Westin, sitting up close to my one of my favorite artists Maysa as she SANG to the audience with such passion, I could not take my eyes off of her. I felt like I was in a dream! I got to meet her afterwards, and at the hotel at the Late Night Hang, these moments are PRICELESS! EVERY musician brought their A-game and performed so well! Peter White, Mindi Abair, Brian and his Band, Chaka Chan! Everyone! All the Artists who are known as "Friends" are really Brian's friends! I could feel and experienced that they were appreciative of being there sharing their passion and love of the music just as much as the guests.

This is the exciting, fun, friendly and embracing atmosphere that the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway provides. For the two outdoors events at Jamieson Ranch Vineyards, the property is incredibly stunning and breathtaking! The stage looked great. The sound system speakers, the sound was clear for everyone to hear. The seats were comfortable. Everything was coordinated very well. Rolling hills everywhere the eye could see. We took it all in. It was a sight to see, especially the sunset! We had a great time, dancing in the aisles, taking photos, eating, enjoying the wines, the music and the experience. The Artists were on hand to sign and autograph after their performances, and also enjoyed themselves as well!!

The NVJG Team took our (the guests) suggestions from last year, and added several improvements that made our experience even better, from offering bus shuttle service to and from the events at a reasonable fee, to the new food trucks (the crepe truck was my favorite!!) and increased restroom areas.

The roster of top-line artists, the participating wineries and other vendors, old and new friends that attending the Getaway have continued to grow and expand since its inception, and I highly recommend the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway. I continue and look forward to every year! Come on up and experience the Getaway for yourself. Cheers to Brian and Jazz Getaway Team! Thank you for all your hard work! See you next year!!

I don't even know where to start. I got a hotel room in Napa ( which was $300 a night) so I could be closer in distance to the venue- mind you I live only 50 minutes away. The traffic was so horrific it took 2 hrs & 20 minutes to go 15 miles to the venue from our hotel! All the insane traffic was because of the jazzfest. I ended up missing the artist I was most excited to see because of that. And there was no more parking either!
I had a silver pass for the weekend yet was not given the silver card or a schedule for the event. We waited 30 minutes in line for wine, but turned out we were in the wrong line. although There was plenty of security there, the wine pouring area only had a handful of people pouring. It seems to me a winery would be better prepared to accommodate all the guests. With the tickets being over a $100 per person I expected much more. I was really looking forward to this weekend concert as it is my 60th birthday. Oh well.........

Poor management leads to a poor experience. The lines for water at 50+ people deep while wine stations are empty. Why? Because they decided to sell water, and to only sell it at one out of the six beverage stations...on a 90 degree day. Why not just give out bottles of water? People are starting to pass out!
Not much thought put into the line-up and how it's ordered either.

Great music! Great location! Brian always there checking things out and participating. New artists. Loved the hotel! I'nm a fan!!

Paid A good sum of money for tickets, lodging, and food last weekend. I look back and although we enjoyed some of the poor quality music due to the wind at the venue - we will not be going to one of these rip off concerts again. This was poorly organized:tickets were grossly oversold for the available parking. The venue had totally ineffective staff on hand that lacked any training in traffic control. The result was spending 3 hrs waiting in six miles of grid lock on state highways, all due the greed of the promoters of this event who had no sense of how to manage an event with a large number of attendees.

Tickets were still for sale at the door, even though there was no available parking left, which left everyone trying to get there with no place to go. Sure thousands attended, but they had to wait for everything - all due to poor planning. This included bathrooms, food, drinks, parking, not to mention a three hour wait in a traffic jam to just get there. We left early after one act, because there is only one way in and one road out full of rude drivers, and we were not going to spend another three hours to leave.

In disgust, we left without buying a thing... The hard plastic card table style folding chairs were zip tied together...very uncomfortable, and lacking in space.

This was simply the worst place to hold this, as it impacted traffic in the entire region. The promoter even sent Emails out to apologize for their failures. No, won't buy tickets for next year.

We got into Napa late on Thursday and caught the last of the Thursday night concert. Fourplay was excellent as usual. The Lincoln Theater is decent venue with plenty of bathrooms, upstairs and down. Before the concert ended, I decided to go to the bar to purchase a bottle of water. I was very firmly told, "we are closed for the evening". Really? The lobby was full of people hanging out. My take was that the ladies working the concessions were tired and ready to go home. Very unaccommodating not to mention the fact that they lots money by cutting off the drinks early. I was hoping that this wasn't an indicator of how the remainder of the weekend would play out. That hope was in vain. Lack and limitation with lots of lines was the theme of the weekend.
NVJG charges upscale pricing for a getaway that is anything but VIP. The lack of water described by the other reviewers was criminal. I hope the fire department gets reimbursed for all the emergency services provided to people became dehydrated and passed out. For this reason alone I will NEVER go back. To limit water is cruel and dangerous. The lack of shade was unbelievable. If you're going to throw an event, call someone who knows what they are doing to help you so that it will be successful. There was a major lack of common sense involved in this scenario. Jamison winery isn't a great venue for a litany of reasons to numerous to list here; an outdoor amphitheater would have been much better one.
You can't sell a lot of wine to unhappy people and you can't increase your audience when you don't throw a great party.

I have attended all 4 NVJG events and must say that I will be attending next year's as well!! I can't wait! After the first event, I knew I was hooked!! Every year, the entertainment keeps getting better and better! Where else can you see a line-up with Brian Culbertson, Eric Darius, Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Peter White, Spyro Gyra, Boney James, Mindi Abair, and Kenny Lattimore, to name a few, for such a reasonable price. Not only is the entertainment second to none, but the location,Napa Valley, is one of the most picturesque places in California.
This is my annual "Get Away" and "Jazz-Family" reunion! I get to hang out with my old friends, meet new friends, and rub elbows with some of the most talented and down to earth artists and musicians in the industry!
This year there were some challenges with the parking on Saturday which I agree was a bit frustrating, but we had never experienced that before. However, because the team quickly jumped in and took corrective measures, Sunday was a breeze! It's unfortunate that some people were there only on Saturday and were not able to experience the other 4 incredible days.
NVJG is like no other Jazz event out there. And there is a price point to fit every budget. Whether you want to stay the full five days, a weekend, or just one day!
The reason I only gave it 4 stars is because there's always room for growth and NVJG is growing every year... Not just in quantity but in quality as well!!

Awesome Event and Top shelf Venues... The People i meet were Beautiful. The Funky Friday event was over the top... First time i have attended this event and will be back.