At the Blue Note Jazz Festival, the Intangible Experiences Outweigh the Tangible
Dave Chappelle, Robert Glasper and a host of artists tried to offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Was one time enough?
By David Evans
2 Day Ticket (General Admission) to the Blue Note Jazz Festival: $450
Gas for trip from Orange County to the Bay Area $105
Three nights at a local Hampton Inn: $500
Flight back home (Southwest Airlines OAK-LGB) $160
Local Transportation (Turo): $275
Food: $100 (est.)
The opportunity to reconnect with family in an informal setting, interact with thousands of people with similar interests in music and similar backgrounds, and connect with strangers on a chartered bus to and from the event: (priceless)
Hosted by Dave Chappelle and modern jazz great Robert Glasper, the Blue Note Jazz Festival was held the last weekend of July (29-31) in Napa, California and was packed with a lineup of R&B, Jazz and hip hop greats, a short list of which include Chaka Khan, Kamasi Washington, Snoop Dogg, Madlib, Isiah Sharkey, Keyon Harrold, Thundercat, Erykah Badu, BJ the Chicago Kid, Black Star, Fredrick Yonnet, Derrick Hodge, D Smoke, Emily King, Ledisi, Goapele and Maxwell.
Considering the festival’s location of Napa Valley the event was an attraction to wine connoisseurs on top of music enthusiasts. Given its high-brow setting and the deep roster of talent, the Napa version of the Blue Note festival had the makings of being the event of the year. It was certainly anticipated as such with attendees coming in from across the country to be a part of the experience.
Tickets ranged in price from the 2-day general admission for $450 to the three-day VIP tickets at $1300, which included air-conditioned lounges in door bathrooms and VIP parking at the event. For those seeking the full experience of Black excellence, the Wine Train Platinum VIP Experience topped out at $1500 per person per day of the event.
Initially scheduled as a two-day event, a third day was added around a month prior to the festival. Chaka Khan, Kamasi Washington, Madlib and Dinner Party, a super-group featuring Glasper, Washington, Terrace Martin and 9th Wonder (who unfortunately didn’t make the festival) were the big draws on the added day.
While big events like this give off the idea that we’re clear from the age of COVID, the issue of scheduling (or rescheduling) artists performances was a sobering reminder that that’s not the case. Saturday saw the most scheduling changes: Erykah Badu could not attend, allegedly due to COVID exposure. The Soul Rebels, a combination of Wu-Tang legend GZA and Talib Kweli, were originally scheduled to perform at 5:45 pm, they’d be pushed up to 4 pm due to a timing issue with the band Phony PPL, who still performed late despite the grace period provided to them with a later spot.
What was done well:
Chartered bus to and from the event: Emanating from Napa College, the bus allowed attendees to park in a secured lot for free and covered the forty-minute trip from the parking lot to the event grounds, except for the immediate grounds of Charles Krug winery, which resembles a college campus except for the mostly dirt roads covered in hay. The festival’s largest event stage and grounds - the Black Radio stage - were like this as well.
Entering and exiting the event: This was easy as navigating a maze-like queue to the entrance gates. Tickets were checked and wristbands were issued. Bags were checked, the only items that were allowed were water bottles and blankets. No food or chairs were allowed.
Adequate number of outdoor bathrooms and hand-washing stations: Roughly two dozen port-a-pottys and outdoor hand-washing stations were located at the front entrance of the festival. For the VIP ticket purchasers, attendees could use the indoor bathrooms inside the winery. However, by the time the event ended, the port-a-pottys were in disarray and the hand washing stations were shut off.
Food options: While no food was allowed inside, there was enough food and drink options on the festival site, albeit none were economical - water and soft drinks cost $3 (cans of Coke/Sprite) and 16oz bottles of water cost over $4. Small carafes of Rose cost $60 and other wines (also in a small carafe) ranged from $62 to $88. Of the three food vendors I visited what stood out was a “Brazilian” food vendor which sold grilled cheese sandwiches for $12 and ham and cheese sandwiches for $15.
Aunt Betty’s sold corn dogs ranging from $8-10 and a plated of warmed-over garlic fries could be had for $12. Not being savvy enough to smuggle snacks in, I ended up buying a plate of the fries. Next door, an Austin-style BBQ stand sold pork sandwiches for $17 and two pieces of chicken and a side could be had for $20. The line for Aunt Betty’s curved into the walkway for event attendees. Inside the Black Radio stage, which was separate from the winery, there were additional drink and limited food options. Al Pastor Papi was the only food vendor inside the stage area, which was separated by security who required attendees to put their phones and smart watches into locked Yondr bags.
Merch: For those seeking to shell $25 to $35 for inexpensively made t-shirts and $80 for light sweatshirts there were a lot of options with artists images and logos. Security at the Black Radio entrance also hawked “Chapelle Show” masks at 2 for $10.
Performances: In spite of the scheduling issues, the artists who performed uniformly put on good shows. Saturday saw Isiah Sharkey perform his hit songs with his band and as a part of an evening performance with Robert Glasper - in my opinion this was the standout performance of the day, as Glasper dug deep into his repertoire and performed a mélange of music including tributes to J Dilla and Slum Village, Chick Corea, Megan Stabile and his mentor Reggie Andrews as well as a recreation of D’Angelo’s “How Does It Feel”. Chappelle would later come on to perform an ad-hoc performance of the Staples Sisters’ “I’ll Take You There.”
Bass guitar phenom Thundercat would also be a part of the climactic Glasper performance but earlier his unique brand of electric funk came across distorted through the speakers. Highlights still included Cat’s duet with his mentor Louis Cole, he also used his time to share his past struggles with alcohol addiction and damage it caused to relationships in his life.
One of the most rousing performances of the late afternoon Saturday was Flying Lotus’ DJ set, in which he played deep house music mix for an hour, which resonated deeply with a large part of the audience, particularly the middle-aged Black attendees, who swayed to the trance-like sounds of modern house.
While waiting the thirty minutes in between Black Star joining the stage, Chappelle shared the story of his first meeting Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli, mentioning that initially he and Kweli didn’t like each other upon meeting at a concert in Cincinnati in 1997. Their bond would form months later when Kweli invited him to listed to them record at Electric Lady in New York some months later.
After joining the stage at 9:20 pm, Yasiin and Kweli blazed through two and a half decades of their combined and individual hits over the period of an hour, saving some of their most well-known songs for the closing of the show.
On Sunday, I attended the event midway through the performances, arriving at the Festival just before 6 pm. Walking up to the Blue Note Napa stage I came across Th1rt3en in session. A rap/rock supergroup comprised of legendary MC Pharoahe Monch, guitarist Marcus Machado and drummer Daru Jones, Thr1rt3en was propelled by Monch’s hard hitting and high energy lyricism. Performing several tracks off their album “A Magnificent Day for An Exorcism,” including “Cult 45,” “Goats Head” and “Amnesia”- a tribute to Monch’s mother, who has been afflicted by memory issues. In between songs, Marcus Machado performed an electrifying guitar solo which should put him in the pantheon of the greatest guitarists. Later in the set, Monch performed his classic songs, such as “F**k You” from the “Training Day” soundtrack.
Moving over to the Black Radio Stage I saw thousands of people sprawled across the grounds, an image which invoked images of Woodstock. With their thin blankets covering the ground not much space was unoccupied from the stage to the boundaries of the festival grounds. Avoiding the awkwardness of stepping on attendees was a more complex task than a game of Twister.
At this point the Sunday slate was gearing up with group performances featuring Glasper, Goapele, Ledisi and D. Smoke with Chappelle hosting.
While still in what I assume was the intermission period, a slowed down version of “Afro Blue” played, but there was no last-second surprise from Badu, who famously covered the song with Glasper.
Goapele, a native of near-by Oakland, performed her 2004 hit “Closer” after a Chappelle introduction. Later, Inglewood native D. Smoke performed his hit “No Commas” and shortly thereafter, Yasiin Bey joined the stage with Smoke to perform a spirited rendition of Black Star’s “Automatic” over J Dilla’s “Wild” instrumental.
After another waiting period, Glasper came on stage to share the story of the making of his 2012 Grammy-winning album “Black Radio” whose blending of jazz, rap, spoken word and R&B really popularized the type of formatting that made a festival like Blue Note such a wanted event. Glasper said it was difficult to coordinate the guest artists scheduled to record with him and that once all the artists were available to record, he canceled a European tour and headed home to work. He went on to say that the story of Ledisi recording the song “FTB,” which subsequently won a Grammy, was recorded in an hour of her arrival at the recording studio.
To much applause, Glasper introduced Ledisi, also an Oakland native to the stage. She performed “FTB” with Glasper as well as well as another recent song I cannot recall the name of.
After Ledisi’s performance, there was roughly a half hour or waiting after Chappelle came out and shared a story about living in New York in the mid-1990s and going to a restaurant in Grammercy Park every day and ordering a cranberry and orange juice from the bartender who worked there. That bartender wound up being the Neo-soul superstar Maxwell.
Sticking to hit songs from his first four albums (from Urban Hang Suite to Blacksummersnight), Maxwell also offered a Prince cover which offered comparisons to Isaiah Sharkey’s Prince cover from earlier in the weekend. Maxwell went further back with a rendition of “Always and Forever” by Heatwave, which he said was to honor all of the festival’s attendees beyond his large, mostly female. fan base. Behind him a combination of abstract images were used to evoked enjoyment including a disco ball and the lower profile of a smiling woman’s face as well as splices of his videos such as “Lifetime.”
A consummate and professional performer, Maxwell performed songs in entirety, which I appreciated. While most of his most well-known songs were released 20+ years ago and I’m not necessarily within his target demographic, I appreciated his attention for his craft, as he performed his hit songs from the late ‘90s and early 2000s giving the songs a certain energy that transferred itself through the crowd, which was needed to make it through the last show of the night.
Surprise Guests - In an attempt maybe to make up for earlier scheduling issues, or maybe just an effort to boost the event’s clout, Chappelle shouted out comedians Anthony Anderson and Katt Williams who were on the grounds. Neither funny man performed, but Chappelle did share a funny anecdote regarding a Twitter beef between the two that neither was actually involved in. More active guests included spoken word artists J. Ivy and Amir Sulieman and harmonist Frederick Yonnet.
What could have been done better
Along with the already-mentioned scheduling issues, most of what have been improved would have been the restrictions regarding allowing people to bring in their own food and chairs - the cost of the food as mentioned was high and the grounds inside the Black Radio stage were as hard as the dirt during a Chicago winter.
Another issue was the noted lack of space around the Black Radio stage. While it was the largest space on the grounds it still was not adequate for the large crowds attracted to the stage, in comparison to the smaller, and more comfortable, Blue Note and Garden stages, which were held on the grounds of the Krug winery. Also, the experience for GA attendees could have offered more considering the cost of tickets. It is also important to note that there were no cell phone charging stations.
Hopefully next year’s festival will provide or allow more comforts including seating and space for all festival attendees and not just the VIP ticket holders.
In all, the greatest value of the show for me was the ability to reconnect with family, which included my aunt, uncle and their significant others, Bay area residents who I don’t see often in an informal setting. Another intangible benefit of the show was the gathering of a large group of Black people who could convene peacefully and respectfully, as much as the event spacing would allow given intrusions on each other’s personal space. Having lived in Southern California for the past two years I can attest to the differences between that area and Northern Cali. Making connections and vibing with people who under normal circumstances I would never meet, especially in Orange County, is the type of experience that stands out to me.
At this point, I’m not sure if I will attend next years’ Blue Note Napa Festival, however I did appreciate the opportunity to experience the event for its music, family and chances to connect with new people.