After Parkside: Where Sonoma's Live Music Plays This Fall

On Friday evenings, live jazz now plays in the 3 Badge Firehouse at the corner of Broadway and Patten Street. The Sonoma Valley Jazz Society has moved its weekly series to Gehricke Wines at 32 Patten St., a short walk down the block from Parkside Wine Bar, the Society's earlier partner, which closed in September. The Society's page lists shows from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with no cover. The Index-Tribune's Oct. 2 report gave a 7 p.m. start, so check the Society's site for the current time before you go.

The move happened fast, and it shows how Sonoma's music scene is actually built. The venues are the part that keeps changing. The series last because the nonprofit and community presenters who book them can move them to a new room within weeks. This fall's calendar around the Plaza shows it clearly.

What closed in September, and what moved

Parkside Wine Bar at 5 E. Napa St. closed on Saturday, Sept. 26, on the same day as Oso Sonoma next door. Chef David Bush co-owns both with Kelley Bush. He told the Sonoma Index-Tribune that the kitchen and building badly needed updating, and "it was too costly to spend the money on a building we don't own." Oso ran for 12 years. In 2015 the paper's People's Choice Awards named it Best New Restaurant. Parkside opened in September 2023. It partnered with the Jazz Society on no-cover Saturday performances once a month.

That same month, Sonoma Speakeasy announced on its Facebook page that it was closing, and the Index-Tribune described the closure as temporary. As recently as August, the Index-Tribune's music listings showed the Speakeasy hosting live acts, Sunday jazz, Tuesday after-market music, karaoke and open mics. Within a few weeks, two of downtown's busiest small music rooms had gone dark.

The jazz kept going because the presenter books the musicians. The Sonoma Valley Jazz Society has been presenting live jazz in the valley for 37 years, and it scheduled the acts that played at Parkside. The Index-Tribune's music columnist described "a bit of a kerfuffle" and a scramble to find the musicians a new home. Soon they had one at Gehricke, in the old fire station on the same block. Gehricke's tasting room is open noon to 8 p.m. on Fridays, which covers the full set.

The Society's own announcement presents the new arrangement as a "venue partnership." It asks listeners to order a few glasses of Gehricke's wine to support it. That is how the setup works. The presenter brings the musicians and the audience, and the host gets the bar sales. The Society hasn't posted a performer list for the Friday dates yet, so its site is the place to check before you go.

The presenters are carrying the calendar

The same presenters handle most of the larger music events this season. The Jazz Society books more than Fridays. Its schedule puts saxophonist Kenny Washington at the Sebastiani Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 1, and pianist Larry Vuckovich on the same stage on Sunday, Nov. 29.

Music in Place, a local music and education organization, just finished its 2026 Sonoma Sundays in the Plaza season. The series ran 17 free concerts at the Grinstead Amphitheater on the Plaza. It also teaches free rhythm and music classes to some 80 to 100 local kids at the Sonoma Valley Boys and Girls Club and the Flowery School, Sassarini School and Maxwell Clubhouse sites. Its next free event is the Lighting of the Plaza, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21.

The Index-Tribune's column on Music in Place goes straight from the free events to the next item on the organization's schedule:

"The common theme has been, and will continue to be, excellent music presented free of charge. And that is where the next bits of information come in, because somebody needs to pay the piper."

That next item is the "Curated, Reimagined, Unplugged" series. It runs this fall and winter at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, the Haraszthy Villa at Bartholomew Park and the Sebastiani Theatre. Times and venues for each date are posted at musicinplace.org.

The season on one page

This table covers presenter-booked, theater and pub music in and around town from the last week of October through year's end. Dates come from the Jazz Society, Music in Place, the Sebastiani Theatre and Murphy's Irish Pub.

Murphy's November calendar also lists Bazmoto, The Riots, Spike Sikes and Magic Band. The holiday calendar has non-music dates too. The Veterans Holiday Market comes back to the Veterans Memorial Building at 126 First St. W. on Nov. 14 and 15, and the Lighted Tractor Parade rolls around the Plaza at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 28.

The rooms that still book their own nights

The presenters fill the special dates. The everyday music, any night of the week, now depends on a smaller group of rooms that book their own acts.

Murphy's Irish Pub at 464 First St. E. says it has live music six nights a week, with an open mic on Mondays and karaoke on the first Tuesday of the month. With the Speakeasy closed, Murphy's is the closest thing downtown has to a nightly music bar.

HopMonk Sonoma at 691 Broadway calls itself a year-round beer garden and listening room. The Index-Tribune's October listings show a Wednesday open mic and weekend music there. Farther out, those listings also include the El Verano Inn, with a Sunday Night Jam and a Wednesday open mic.

For the open mics, Wednesday has two options and Monday has one. Sunday night belongs to El Verano. With the Speakeasy's Sunday jazz and Tuesday after-market sets on hold, those nights now have fewer choices.

Winery music thins out with the season

The valley's winery rooms are the third piece of the music calendar, and they slow down after harvest. B.R. Cohn Winery at 15000 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen runs its Summer Music Series on weekends through Oct. 31, from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Its remaining October lineup includes Lorin Rowan, Peter Filice and Greg Lamboy, along with Callie Watts, Jay Messer, John Waltz, TJ Carter, Jason Bodlovich and S.R. Laws.

Another winery room is closing this month. Passaggio Wines, which stopped production last year, will close its tasting room at Jack London Village by the end of October, the Index-Tribune reported. The same paper reported that Vella Cheese Company, Sonoma's oldest fromagerie, sold its last cheese on Sept. 4, earlier than planned, after customers bought out its remaining stock. The shop was at 315 Second Street East. Fall has been hard on Sonoma's longtime small businesses. The music has held up better than most, because the groups that book it can move it.

A short walk covers most of it

Most of this season's music sits within a few blocks of the Plaza.

• First Street East: Murphy's Irish Pub at 464 and the Sebastiani Theatre at 476 are next to each other. That puts the six-nights-a-week bar beside the stage hosting the Kingston Trio, Kenny Washington and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
• Broadway and Patten Street: Gehricke's firehouse at 32 Patten St. hosts the Friday jazz, and HopMonk is farther down Broadway at 691.
• The Plaza itself: The Grinstead Amphitheater is quiet until next summer's Sundays, and the Plaza lights up again on Nov. 21.

On a Friday you can catch jazz at the firehouse and still have time to walk over to First Street East for Murphy's later set.

In a town this size, the places and people a community supports say as much about it as any property detail. If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of these rooms, or about what a place on the edge of town is like on a Friday night, Yvonne Rich can give you a discreet, well-informed view of how Sonoma lives. Contact Yvonne.