Jaco Pastorius would have turned 75 on December 1, and Pompano Beach intends to throw the party. The city's arts department has booked the Jaco Pastorius Big Band, a lineup of more than 15 musicians, for a birthday concert that night at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center on West Atlantic Boulevard, in the city where the bassist once lived and a few miles from where his children and grandchildren grew up. Tickets start at $60.

It is the headline of a fall and winter in which Pompano Beach's own cultural venues are turning the spotlight on people the city produced. Between now and February, three of its historic buildings will be telling hometown stories: a jazz revolutionary, an Emmy-winning actress born near the railroad tracks in old Pompano, and the educator whose name is on the city's best-known high school.

Fifty years after the record that changed the bass

The timing is not only about the birthday. The concert also marks half a century since the stretch that made Pastorius a name far beyond Broward County. His self-titled debut album came out in 1976, the same year he turned up on Weather Report's Black Market, Joni Mitchell's Hejira and Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life. That run is a big part of why he is credited with changing what the electric bass could do, and the evening's set will lean on music from that era before working through favorites from the rest of his career.

Leading the band is Peter Graves, who toured and recorded with Pastorius for years. Pompano Beach Arts says Graves will tell stories between the big-band arrangements about the music and the moments behind it, which is the part a recording cannot give you. Special guest artists are also on the bill, and the city says more performers, merchandise and extras will be announced in the coming weeks.

The show runs from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Cultural Center, an intimate room rather than an arena, at 50 W. Atlantic Blvd. next to City Hall. For a musician whose fans are spread around the world, that is a small house, and it is worth deciding early if you want to be in it.

Esther Rolle, seen through Blanche Ely students' eyes

A month earlier, on November 5, the Ali Cultural Arts Center opens Everything Esther, an exhibition about Esther Rolle that runs through February 23. Rolle was born in Pompano on November 8, 1920, one of 18 children in a farming family, according to the city's history pages, which draw on the Pompano Beach Historical Society. She graduated from Spelman College in 1942 and went on to play Florida Evans, first on Maude and then on its spin-off Good Times, earning a Golden Globe nomination. In 1979 she won an Emmy for her supporting role in Summer of My German Soldier. Two years later the City Commission renamed NW Third Avenue as Esther Rolle Avenue. She died in 1998 and is buried at Westview Cemetery.

What makes this year's show different is who made it. The artwork comes from students at Blanche Ely High School, who made new contemporary pieces about her path from Pompano to national television and her fight for authentic Black representation. An opening reception is set for November 5 from 6 to 8 p.m., with registration through Pompano Beach Arts.

The building itself is part of the point. The Ali, at 353 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., dates to the 1930s and was the first Black-owned building in the city. Florence Major Ali and her husband Frank ran a barbershop and barber school there, plus a boarding house for traveling Black entertainers who could not stay east of the tracks under segregation. Local lore puts Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong among the guests. The Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency bought the building in 2012 and turned it into the arts center it is today.

Add your own photo at the Ely House

The one you can see right now is a few blocks north. Captured: A Living Archive opened October 2 at the Blanche Ely House Museum, 1500 NW 6th Ave., and stays up until April 2. It fills the house's living room with photographs of the families, people and events that shaped the Northwest community, and then asks visitors to join in: a Polaroid station lets you take a picture, write a short reflection and leave both behind, so the exhibit grows with each visit.

The house was home to Blanche and Joseph Ely. Blanche Ely, born in Reddick in 1904, became principal of what was then the Pompano Colored School, started four more schools, and pushed for a new public high school at the height of segregation. That school opened in 1951 and took her name in 1954. The city restored the home and opened it to the public in March 2019. It is open during events and by appointment; call 954-545-7800 to book a visit.

What it means if you live here

Pompano Beach is usually sold on its beach, its pier and its fishing village. This season is a reminder that the city also exported real cultural weight, and that the places telling those stories are city-owned buildings within a short drive of most residents. Book the Jaco tickets first, since that room will fill. Put the Esther Rolle opening on the calendar for November 5. And if you have never been inside the Ely House, this is the season to call and go, and leave a Polaroid of your own Pompano behind.