Celebrate the Carmel Plaza’s 50th anniversary tonight with the kick-off of one of the summer’s best weekly events! The “Jazz at the Plaza” series starts tonight with music by the smooth-voiced Neal Banks, wine from Ventana Vineyards, and great food from Bistro Beaujolais. 5-7pm, Ocean Avenue and Mission Street, Carmel. $15.

Warm up for the California Rodeo Salinas with “Cowboys and Cabernet.” At 5pm, taste wine and enjoy barbecue; starting at 6pm, poet Baxter Black and guitarist Dave Stamey provide the backbone for an evening of great Western poetry. Sherwood Hall, 940 N. Main Street, Salinas. Wine tasting is $10 and includes a souvenir glass; $40 for poetry event.

Shoegazey LA band Satellite Crush have been compared to The Cure and the Dandy Warhols; we’d describe them as what Slowdive would have sounded like with vocals by the Charlatans. They play Jose’s tonight; local melodic electro-acoustic charmers The Dreamer and the Sleeper open. 9pm, 638 Wave Street, Monterey. $5.

Saturday

See one of the most important exhibits of photography to appear on the Central Coast in many years as “Ansel Adams: Portrait of America” opens at the Monterey Museum of Art. Landscape photographer Ansel Adams selected over 70 of his images to be made available to museums and art institutions, but died before he could finish printing the sets. This exhibit displays one of the only complete sets. The exhibition runs through October 3. 11am-5pm, 720 Via Mirada, Monterey. $5.

The California Rodeo Salinas Big Week kicks off with two great parades! The Kiddie Kapers Parade features local children dressed in Western-themed costumes pulling kid-sized floats. The legendary Colmo del Rodeo Parade, once the greatest night-lighted parade west of the Mississippi, returns in what is sure to be a fun event for the whole family. The Kiddie Kapers Parade is open to all children; the line-up starts at 5pm and the parade starts at 6:30pm at the Salinas Recreation Center, 230 Lincoln Avenue. The Colmo del Rodeo Parade starts at West Acacia and South Main Streets at 8pm and continues down Main Street in Oldtown Salinas to the Steinbeck Center. Both events are free.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Jazz Festival have partnered to create a stellar line-up for this year’s Evenings by the Bay events at the Aquarium. Tonight, catch jazz pianist Bill Spencer. Wine and beer is available for purchase from the bar in the Marine Mammal Hall, and appetizers are available at the espresso cart. 6pm-8pm, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey. Event included in admission fee.

Get “lei’d” at the Hawaiian-themed Monterey Pride party tonight at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. The event includes a performance by Indigo Girls-esque locals Trusting Lucy, dancers, and music from D.J. AD. 6pm-midnight, King City Room at Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. $20.

This week’s winner of the BlogMonterey trophy for “most unusual event of the weekend” is the Monterey Concours de Fromage at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The Concours de Fromage uses the latest in innovative technology to combine an artisan wine and cheese tasting with cutting edge electric cars and motorcycles. Attend and you’ll get a free pass to see the electric cars and motorcycles on the track the next day at the ReFuel event. Proceeds from the event benefit Heifer International. 6:30pm, paddock at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, 1021 Monterey-Salinas Highway, Salinas. $45/person.

Catch up on the biggest Internet viral videos of the past year at the Henry Miller Library’s “Viral Videos in the Redwoods.” Your hosts are Eddie Codel, who founded Geek Entertainment TV and runs production services for Ustream, and Jamie Wilkinson, formerly of Rocketboom and currently a member of the copyleft FAT Lab. If those bonafides don’t mean anything to you, then consider this event your Internet cultural literacy course. 8pm, Henry Miller Library, Highway One in Big Sur. Free.

Pack a picnic and dress in your best retro gear for a free showing of the Elvis classic “Viva Las Vegas” in Scholze Park. To get free tickets to the movie, just stop in any participating shop on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey. Sunset, Scholze Park (corner of Lighthouse Avenue and Dickman Avenue), Monterey.

New York indie folksters Big Tree have a bit of showtune spice like Nellie McKay and the throaty vocals and ethereal elements of Hanne Hukkelberg. Portland’s Papagaiyo are a jam band that’s 50% Grateful Dead, 40% James Brown and 10% Bob Dylan, while raspy-voiced Oregonians Volifonix play hooky funk rock that, refreshingly, owes far less to the Red Hot Chili Peppers than The Mars Volta. The three blow the roof off of Jose’s tonight. 9pm, 638 Wave Street, Monterey. $5.

Sweet-voiced Oakland indie act The Hot Toddies sound like New Young Pony Club meets Uncle Bonsai. They play what is sure to be a much-talked-about show tonight at Fernwood in Big Sur. 9pm, Highway One, Big Sur. No cover.

Sunday

It’s time to break that Tesla out of the garage and drive it on the track at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca! Refuel is the first on-and-off-track showcase for electric cars and motorcycles. Owners of electric cars will have the chance to drive their cars on the track. Both mass-produced and home-brewed electric vehicles will be on exhibit, and many will race to see which is the fastest (we’re betting on Tesla). The electric vehicle showcase runs 10am-5pm; the track sessions start at 2:30pm. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, 1021 Monterey-Salinas Highway, Salinas. $10.

Local surf zydeco band The Cachagua Playboys play what is bound to be a fun set today on the deck at the Big Sur River Inn Restaurant. 1pm-5pm, Highway One in Big Sur. No cover.

Central Coast singer/songwriters Lauren Shera, Andrea Blunt, Christina Bailey and Sara Bollwinkel have joined forces as the band honeymoon. The four blend their voices and musical styles to create something truly unique. They’ll open for Mary Chapin Carpenter next month; today they play at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, an ethereal setting befitting their music. 2pm, Henry Miller Library, Highway One, Big Sur. Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 plus fees in advance via Eventbrite.

Tonight, catch jazz saxophonist Garry Meek at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Evenings by the Bay,” and enjoy a glass of wine and light food as you browse the galleries. 6pm-8pm, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey. Event included in admission fee.

Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, and Lenny White concluded the Monterey Jazz Festival with a set loaded with truly classic jazz.

Stanley Clarke. Photo by Mike Rainey.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

DJ Logic had a crowd dancing in the Lyons Lounge at the Monterey Jazz Festival. His beats were irresistible. We’d say more, but we lost all journalistic integrity and joined the throngs on the dance floor.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

Lew Tabackin, Peter Washington and Toshiko Akiyoshi of the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Quartet. Photo by Mike Rainey.

Akiyoshi’s ferocious piano playing was well-complimented by Tabackin’s energetic sax work.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

Dave Brubeck. Photo by Mike Rainey.

Brubeck’s music features figures from the past filtered through Brubeck’s unique, modern voice. While other acts pull in reggae and ska, Brubeck extends the reach of greats like Schubert, Rachmaninov and Debussy.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Photo by Mike Rainey.

What Brubeck doesn’t play is as important as what he does play. He could make it all about his piano playing, but he doesn’t. He’s a generous performer, leaving the space for drummer Randy Jones to show off his effortless skill at intricate tempo changes, Bobby Militello to show his fleet fingers on both flute and saxophone, and Michael Moore to show his startling fluidity on the bass. When other artists are soloing, Brubeck’s attention is totally focused on them. He listens to what they play and responds to it, and as a result the music sounds like a conversation being held between instruments.

Dave Brubeck and Bobby Militello. Photo by Mike Rainey.

And then they brought down the house with Take Five, making it sound as fresh and original as when it was released.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

Crowds thronged in front of Dizzy’s Den on Sunday night, just to catch the strains of the Joe Lovano Us Five, a jazz supergroup featuring Lovano on tenor saxophone, Esperanza Spalding on bass, James Weidman on piano, and Otis Brown and Francisco Mela on drums.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category

The Shotgun Wedding Quintet on the Garden Stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Photo by Mike Rainey.

Pulling in influences from ska to reggae to klezmer, the Shotgun Wedding Quintet could be viewed as just another novelty band. To make that assumption, however, would miss one important thing: they’re ferociously talented.

Adam Theis of the Shotgun Wedding Quintet plays his bass with his keyboard and trombone. Photo by Mike Rainey.

This talent is best exemplified by Adam Theis, who brings new meaning to the term “one-man band.” Theis would play several notes on his bass, loop them through an effects pedal, then play trombone to his own accompaniment. As if this wasn’t enough, he then used his keyboard and trombone (yes, the physical instruments) to play his bass. One audience member, who had likely just seen Jason Moran play piano with a beer bottle, whispered, “Apparently this is ‘get freaky with the jazz’ night.”

The Shotgun Wedding Quintet featuring vocalist Dublin (R) at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Photo by Mike Rainey.

The Shotgun Wedding Quintet’s dark, sharp-edged, often funny lyrics detail the daily trials of San Francisco life, from the girlfriend that’s “too hip to live” to the frustrations of being used as a derogatory example on the national political stage. Their solid beats had people dancing in front of the stage. They were a Sunday night standout at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

Jason Moran discusses “Feedback” at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Photo by Mike Rainey.

Before the performance, Moran explained that the work was inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. “He was really able to work feedback in a very musical way,” Moran said. Moran had studied the feedback sections of Hendrix’s performance and sought to reference them in “Feedback.”

Watching the first performance of “Feedback” was absolutely exhilarating. The piece began as something profoundly dissonant and deconstructed, almost Dadaesque. Moran ran a beer bottle along the strings of the piano as he played the keys, changing the tone. As he took a swig from the bottle, the audience cheered. The drummer then dragged his stick and a microphone across the cymbal, creating clashing, screeching noises as the bassist played selected notes as counterpoint.

Jason Moran uses a beer bottle to play piano. Photo by Mike Rainey.

Just when the piece seemed like it would spin out of control into random, unmitigated noise, the piano became melodic and comforting as the bass and drums joined in for something slower and more traditional. But even these traditional sections were punctuated with cascading background loops of feedback. The music momentarily glided into a faster and propulsive, rock-influenced tempo, then transformed back into an accelerated jazz piece. The feedback was a dissonant element in what would otherwise have been a straight-ahead jazz composition.

Jason Moran generates feedback. Photo by Mike Rainey.

Moran switched back and forth between keyboard and piano throughout the piece, occasionally walking up to the Marshall amp stack with a microphone, moving it across the speakers to generate new and surprising tones. Finally, he came to the front of the stage to sing briefly. Then he brought the audience in to sing for the finale, one half singing a low tone while the other sang something akin to a police siren.

For more information on the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

For more coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.

Forro in the Dark, by Mike Rainey

Though their music doesn’t have the same sound, Forro in the Dark’s music at its core has a boisterous sense of fun best compared to Australia’s Cat Empire. Their music is an interesting fusion of Brazilian and Western sounds, with a little bit of surf guitar thrown in. It may not sound instantly danceable, but Forro in the Dark was the only band on Friday night that had a crowd dancing in front of the stage.

Forro in the Dark, by Mike Rainey

This is a band that truly gets into its music. They couldn’t resist dancing to their own music (nor, as mentioned earlier, could the crowd), and their percussionists practice full-body drumming. They’re electric to watch, and energized the previously sleepy late-night crowd.

Forro in the Dark are touring throughout the rest of the year – keep an eye out for when they’re coming to your area.

For all our coverage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, see our Monterey Jazz Festival category.