Jazz Fest moment, Fort Ord paintings, Seaside Library news.

• At last weekend’s Monterey Jazz Festival, the Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet +5 premiered a Jazz Fest commission called The Forgotten Places on an early Saturday evening audience in the arena. The sky was dark, tinged with reds and blues of the stage lights; the audience hushed. The music emerged intricate, melodic, innovative and entrancing. It employed syncopated hand claps that none of the audience seemed able to follow, and falsetto singing that evoked a boys choir mass. One longtime festival attendee from Kansas City wondered, “How do you even write that kind of music?” It doesn’t seem to be available online yet. In the meantime, it exists in the memories of a few thousand lucky concertgoers who showed up not knowing what they were going to hear, hoping it would be exceptional, and being right in a way they could not have expected.

• The Office of Military & Veterans Affairs, located in Monterey Superior Court, recently completed a major renovation/re-design of their headquarters and are holding a grand opening 3-6pm Friday to celebrate. It will feature several Fort Ord paintings by Enid Baxter Ryce, who will talk about the work. You’ll want to hear that. And I don’t say that because she’s my wife, but because she talks about Fort Ord – its history, its culture, its geography – like few other artists can or do. 647-7613 to RSVP.

• Burlesque 101 Workshop teaches said moves 7pm Friday to folks who email their name and number to ada@adalavender.com, subject “Burlesque 101.” Ada says burlesque is a “place where the performer is in control… of her (or his) sensuality, comedy, political statement, or message to the audience.” (Uh huh.) And also “great at boosting body self-confidence” because it “embraces the beauty in all sizes and ages.”

• Rabia Erduman, born in Turkey, is the author of the personal growth and spirituality book Veils of Separation: Finding the Face of Oneness. Sunday, 3-4pm, she presents what’s billed as a free demonstration and lecture of the book’s principals at Monterey Public LIbrary, which revolve around not feeling guilty for doing what you love. I am curious about how that will be demonstrated. 272-2781.

• Speaking of renovations, Seaside Public Library is closing for renovation Oct. 1-Nov. 3. Their materials will be out of circulation. The homework center for students will move to the Seaside Youth Center Oct. 12-Nov. 2, 3-5pm Mon-Tue and Thu, 1-5pm Wed. When the library re-opens, it will throw an 85th birthday party. A preview of those 85 years is at Avery Gallery at City Hall. 883-7573.