2025
Vacaville Jazz festival
Sunday, September 21, 2025 • Downtown Vacaville
Free to attend — a celebration of community, family, and music!
Live Music All Day
Curated by the Vaca Jazz Society, enjoy an eclectic mix of jazz, blues, rock, funk, and global rhythms. Support and celebrate our local young musicians across three vibrant venues:
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Journey’s Library
All day: Student acts from School of Rock Vacaville
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School Street Bridge (by Makse Restaurant)
All day: Live Music Center Jazz & Rock student bands
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Vacaville Town Square
Keith Stout Tribute Day — honoring his legacy with music and stories:-
11 AM – 12 PM: Vallejo Community Jazz Band (Dir. Steve Logoteta)
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12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: It’s About Time Big Band
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2 PM – 3 PM: Delbert Bump Ensemble
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3 PM – 3:30 PM: Keith Stout Tribute
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3:30 PM – 4:30 PM: AMO Big Band + Vaca High Jazz Band
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5 PM – 6 PM: J Harrison B Band ft. Stan Johnson
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6:30 PM – 7:30 PM: Ramana Vieira Latin Band
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Wine Passport Experience
Stroll downtown with a glass in hand and sample 27 wines at nine local stops, complete with 10% off at each participating eatery.
Passport pricing:
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$50 Early Bird (by July 21)
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$65 (after July 21)
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$10 off with military discount (code: MILITARY10)
🎟 Purchase online here!
On the day, check in at the listed location on ticket, grab your passport + tasting map, then tour downtown, sip, dine, and enjoy the music.
Participating spots:
Merchant & Main Grill & Bar / Caymus
BackDoor Bistro / Gilpin
Journey Downtown / Ophiolite Cellars
The Main Grape / Backroad Vines
Celeste Tea / Carneros Della Notte
Fuso / Turkovich Family Wines
Pure Grain Cafe / Layne Family Wines
Makse Restaurant / TenBrink & Tolenas
Los Reyes / Trinchero
**A portion of the Vacaville Music, Wine & Food Festival proceeds will be donated to the Vacaville Jazz Society Non Profit 501 C to help continue to create free Jazz Music workshops and free music concerts for the young music students in our public and private schools in the Vacaville Community.
Why We Do It
Vaca Jazz Society is a volunteer-driven nonprofit celebrating music's rich, multicultural roots. We support music education, heritage, and community through festivals, youth camps, library concerts, and more.
This festival captures our mission—free, accessible, family‑friendly entertainment, spotlighting emerging talent and honoring traditions—while bringing the community together downtown.
Our biggest and best-known undertaking is the annual Vacaville Jazz Festival, which has been held on the 3rd weekend of September since established in 1999. VJS has now expanded citywide with the festival at three main venue locations:.
Last year's festival was a great success, with shows all weekend long at 6 different venues. Many local businesses and major sponsors were instrumental in providing financial resources to help offset some of the costs of this event. We are incredibly grateful to all who contributed to help us put on our successful annual festival.
We cant wait to see you this year!
As the 2023 Vacaville Jazz Festival drew to a close , we were excited to start planning for the 2024 Music Festival and looking for ways to make the next one bigger and better!!!!
Thank You to all the talented musicians, who participated in the Jazz Festival’s From it’s beginning in 1999 to the present!!!! We could not have done it without your dedication and generosity.
Ken Stout ” President of the Vaca Jazz Society”
Ramana Vieira
2nd Planet
Featured Artists & Bands:
Northern California native of Portuguese descent, Ramona Vieira is an internationally acclaimed recording artist, well known as a contemporary Fado singer - a fadista. Fado is a music genre often called "Portuguese Blues". With inspiration from her roots of Portugal and Brazil, Ramana and her ensemble play both traditional Fado classics with a Latin Jazz spin, and today's classics. Her Diversity in performing global world music is hailed internationally and locally.
Formed in the year 2000, 2nd Planet is a diverse music experience specializing in the styles of contemporary jazz, rock, r&b and funk. nThe San Francisco Bay Area based band consists of 4 musicians who utilize their creative gifts to electrify music listeners with their original brand of music as displayed in the band's latest album release titled, "Back Down to Earth".
J. Harrison B. Band
Viva Santana Show
J. Harrison B. has been performing in the mid-west, California, and Japan for the past 60 years.We were inducted into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame in 2000. The current quintet will be performing Jazz and Pop. For further information, visit jharrisonb.com, Stan Johnson.
The Viva Santana Show is an award-winning tribute to the musical genius of Santana. The band recreates the timeless music of Santana in a way that is authentic and powerful. If you're a fan of Carlos Santana, this tribute show will take you on a journey that inspires and entertains.
The Teds
The Teds will be playing at VPAC patio, 10:30
We play variety of old rock and roll, blues, country and pop
Performers are (left to right)
Ted Fontaine, guitar and vocal
John Kraft, drums and vocal
Lola Kraft, bass and vocal
Barbara Mills, Vocal
Make sure to reserve your tables to watch this wonderful Free performance by the Labrats show at Makse Restaurant for Sunday 9-22-24 at 3-4:30 pm. The table seats are getting booked fast.
See more at https://www.labratsband.com
Lab Rats
Darlyn Pearl & The Groove Room
Sabrina
the Songstress
It takes a bit to find the right make up and chemistry of people you want to spend time with and plant seeds with. As a group we do a lot of seed planting. Individually Musicians, whether working in the actual industry as full timers or locally on weekends, are teachers and artists. The band holds the belief that giving to the community planting seeds in the community wherever we go, are some of our best times.
Sabrina the Songstress and the very gifted Keyboardist, James Malone have shared the stage many times for over 30 years. Together they create a unique and special energy that is felt and enjoyed by audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds. They will take you on a musical journey with songs by artists from the Harlem Renaissance Era (like Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole & Frank Sinatra) into more modern times with the likes of Natalie Cole, anita Baker and Sade; weaving in historical facts & narratives along the way. The highly unique energetics of this dynamic duo is something you won’t forget!
Brette Alana Duo
Brette Alana is an independent performing and recording artist who has always had a passion for creating her own music. With her vocals rooted in her jazz upbringing and beginnings, she has the flexibility to turn any song and make it her own unique style. Her originals, her open heart and thought driven mind written in song form, share her story and worldly perspectives one note, rhythmic pulse, and evocative lyric at a time.
Come see her and Jimmy Malone live to experience their unique sound and be the first to hear some of her very own originals, performed for the first time.
See our calendar for more details.
Come enjoy a fun show in Makse's Speakeasy on Friday night! Featuring Ken Stout, Brette Alana, Jimmy Malone, Bob Nadler and Steve Krohn.
Ken Stout Band
with Brette Alana
Young Artists Conservatory of Music
Young Artist Conservatory of Music (YACM) is pleased to be a part of such a vibrant arts community in Vacaville. Performing together at Makse Restaurant is an opportunity for our community to celebrate the importance of the arts in our city. We are dedicated to the power of formal musical training to transform young people into young artists. Regular performances are integral to developing musical discipline and confidence. We invite you to attend the Jazz festival at Makse and learn more about YACM and all the arts opportunities here in Vacaville and Solano County.
It's About Time
It's About Time, a “big band” or “swing band” based in Davis, was formed in September 1996. Amazingly, in our diverse and mobile society, several of the original members are still playing with the band today. In addition to playing many of the stock,
swing arrangements of the Big Band Era, the band's repertoire has expanded to include more Latin tunes and contemporary pieces. The band features a vocalist and many of its musicians in improvisational solos.
Marion Oliver
Music School
Vallejo Community Jazz Band
Ms. Oliver has been teaching lessons for over 25 years! with a Master of Arts in Music performance, her specialty instruments are flute, piano, voice and ukulele. Lessons are in her home studio. Come see performances from many of her students and groups!
With its lineage tracing back to the great rehearsal bands of Vallejo in the 1960s and 1970s, the Vallejo Community Jazz Band was founded by Frank Bigoski III in the 1980s. It has been lead by Steven Logoteta since 1992. Mr. Logoteta, a talented woodwinds player, holds music degrees from the University of the Pacific and Indiana University. Members of the band are professional, aspiring, and amateur musicians and music educators, all of whom live and work in the Greater Bay Area. The Vallejo Community Jazz Band is fortunate to have performed at every Vacaville Jazz Festival and is pleased and honored to be performing at the 2024 Vacaville Jazz Festival!