LA and OC Weirdo Music and Art Forum

MUSIC IN THE ORCHARD - Jason Feddy Band

Sun, Oct 18 · 2:00 PM PDT

The Orchard, 2016 Tustin Avenue, Newport Beach, CA, US

Cross-Posted with Orange County Art & Culture

Date: Date: Sunday, October 18, 2026 2-5 pm

Venue: The Orchard
2016 Tustin Ave., Newport Beach 92660

They will pass the hat for the musicians - Cash donations $20 suggested

Jason Feddy Band, @ The Orchard, Sunday 2-5pm

Jason Feddy (born February 22, 1966) is a versatile British-born singer-songwriter, guitarist, radio host, and cantor currently based in Laguna Beach, Southern California. Originally from Leeds, UK, he built his early musical career playing in British pubs and clubs during the 1980s before eventually relocating to the United States and becoming a U.S. citizen in 2010.
Known for what The New York Times describes as his "rumpled charm," Feddy has established himself as a central figure in the Orange County music scene through several distinct endeavors:

🎙️ Music & Projects

• Original Work & Theater: He is the creator of Shakespeare’s Fool, a critically acclaimed theatrical project and accompanying song cycle based on the music and text from William Shakespeare's plays. His broader solo discography includes albums like Songs from the Plays and Is this thing on?.
• Bands & Tributes: Feddy fronts multiple musical projects, including The BeatRoots (a stylistic tribute to The Beatles), Mad Dogs & The Englishman (a tribute to Joe Cocker), and Wild Night (a tribute to Van Morrison). He also plays with the Jason Feddy Trio alongside Grammy-winning bassist James East and drummer Todd Wolf.
• High-Profile Openings: Throughout his career, he has opened for or collaborated with major artists such as Neil Young, Joe Cocker, David Gray, The Cranberries, and Tears for Fears.

📻 Radio Personality
For roughly a decade, Feddy served as the prominent morning drive-time DJ for Laguna Beach's independent radio station, KXFM (formerly KX93.5). One of his most famous recurring segments on the station was "Jason Sings the Police Blotter," where he turned the city's unique local crime logs into comedic folk songs.

✡️ Cantor & Community Leadership
In addition to his secular music career, Feddy is fluent in Hebrew and serves as the resident Cantor and musical soloist at Temple Isaiah of Newport Beach. He also collaborates musically with the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County. His impact on local culture earned him the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance "Artist of the Year" award for 2019/2020. [1, 2, 3]
Watch the Jason Feddy Trio perform a live, high-energy acoustic set at Campus JAX to see his performance style in action:

The Orchard is a concert venue built into a large backyard shaded by old trees. Some seating is available, but you may want to bring a regular folding chair, hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, just in case. Try to come a bit early to get the best seating, in the shade. Possible dinner after the show; bring cash for donation & meal.
Note
-Suggested donations $20+ (to support the band)
-Kindly RSVP if you wish to attend & update your reservation if your plans change!
-Please check for any updates prior to the start time.
Terms
*By participating in these events, you release all involved of any liabilities. This is an inclusive space, so NO trolling, harassment, & hardline political rhetoric. Thanks!
We hope you can join us!

The Orchard is a private residence in Newport Beach with a beautiful outdoor park-like setting. Bring your own folding chair, picnic lunch, and beverages for a relaxing afternoon listening to this amazing band. It's best to get there 10 minutes early to get a space in the shade. FREE, but please bring cash for donations for the band.
It's a chill vibe and you are expected to bring a chill vibe with you.

FREE CONCERT: UP CLOSE & CLASSICAL: SONATA SERIES

Sun, Oct 18 · 4:00 PM PDT

St Thomas of Canterbury, 5306 E Arbor Rd B, Long Beach, CA 90808, USA, Long Beach, CA, US

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - NO TICKETS REQUIRED

Date: Sunday, October 18, 4:00
Possible dinner afterwards TBD

Venue: St. Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church
5603 E. Arbor Road, Long Beach

This concert will be repeated on Sunday, October 25th at 2 pm at
Danish Lutheran Church, 16881 Bastenchury Rd., Yorba Linda, CA

Program:
Sonata Series – Nicholaus Yee, viola, Junko Nojima, harpsichord/piano

JS Bach gamba Sonata 3 in G minor; Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) Viola Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 36 ; Rebecca Clarke ( 1886-1979) Three Shorter pieces for viola and piano

About UP CLOSE AND CLASSICAL:

Website: https://upcloseandclassical.com/

UP CLOSE AND CLASSICAL, a musical experience of time.
Our Mission is to make chamber music more accessible
By presenting professional chamber music concerts with free admission,
by choosing repertoire that tells the story of this art form, and
by giving “listening keys” so any audience member can be prepared for optimal appreciation.

Our Vision is local and professional.
Many professional classical musicians live in the Long Beach and surrounding communities. It is possible to bring people together to provide opportunities for shared experiences of music, fostering education and unity. UP CLOSE AND CLASSICAL can be the recognizable name where professional musicians share the chamber music they love while being fairly paid for their skills and preparation.

UP CLOSE AND CLASSICAL is a fiscally-sponsored affiliate of InterMusic SF, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to small-ensemble music. (EIN 94-3298643)
Question or comment? Call Hervé at 626 278 0786 or email upcloseandclassical@gmail.com .

How we started?
In 2023, Alicja and Hervé Blanquart started organizing chamber music concerts with free admission in both San Pedro and Long Beach, in churches, under the dba UP CLOSE AND CLASSICAL (UCC), with an initial $5000 loan and a dedicated bank account. UCC became in April 2025 a fiscally-sponsored affiliate to IntermusicSF, a non-profit organization specializing in small-ensemble music, received a grant from the Colburn Foundation and sponsorship from the Port of Long Beach. This support has allowed UCC to present 37 concerts with free admission to a cumulated audience of 2,265 as of June 2026. We are planning 32 concerts for an expected audience of 3,200 in 2026-27.

What is the impact of our work?
The proximity our concerts offer and the listening keys we provide are transforming our audience’s perception of chamber music in three ways:

1- Wordless music is not “background”, it is meaningful. This meaning is accessible through active listening.

2- Chamber music is not “long”. Musical form is realized in time. Mankind has always used music to understand time.

3- In chamber music, vulnerability is cherished. Musical ensembles are small by choice. When the power of technology seems limitless, live chamber music reconnects us with the vital need humans have to make music with instruments, proven by a 40,000-year history.
This reconnection happens in thousands of individual ways thanks to our concerts

What needs do we address?
In the 4th century, St Augustine wrote: “What is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asks, I do not know”. Since he wrote his Confessions, music has often been preferred to words to discuss the nature of time. But most people have not benefited from such discussion for the last 100 years. Despite Henri Bergson’s powerful argument using music to demonstrate that Albert Einstein’s notion of spacetime was incomplete, in their famous 1922 debate, time has since been widely misunderstood as homogeneous, and musical tastes have evolved in new ways, for example to value a predictable beat over flowing rhythm. Goethe described a string quartet as “four intelligent people conversing with one another”. The true nature of time is always a subject of such conversations. For example, as Bergson explained to Einstein, the nature of simultaneity is obvious to a trained listener appreciating musical counterpoint. The speed of light is irrelevant to such knowledge, made accessible through music. Good conversations have rhythm, not a predictable beat. They happen “up close”, and classical music shows how seemingly incompatible ideas can simultaneously be beautiful, and foster peace. We need more such conversations in our 21st century!

FOUNDERS: ALICJA and HERVÉ BLANQUART

Free: The Bengali: An Evening of Film and the Power of Storytelling

Wed, Oct 21 · 6:00 PM PDT

The Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230, Culver City, CA, US

Free movie and discussion

Date: October 21, 2026 @ 6:00 pm

Venue: Wende Museum - A-Frame Theater
10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230

Free but you must register:
https://wendemuseum.org/event/the-bengali-an-evening-of-film-and-the-power-of-storytelling/

Join us for an evening of film, conversation, and community at the Wende Museum as we explore the stories we inherit, the identities we carry, and the unexpected connections that shape our world.

Program
6:00 PM — Reception
6:30 PM — Doors Open
6:45 PM — Film Screening
8:15 PM — Conversation & Audience Q&A

In The Bengali, named one of Nonfics’ Top 20 Documentaries, director Kavery Kaul takes an American woman to India to uncover the past of her grandfather, Shaik Mohamed Musa. He was one of the early group of men who arrived in the late nineteenth century and married African-American women. Her unlikely quest triggers a boldly different encounter between East and West. A personal search becomes a deeper journey into culture, memory, and identity, breaking barriers and building bridges, revealing how histories travel, and families form across unexpected places.

The Bengali has inspired the #UnderOurSun impact campaign, a digital storyteling movement that invites everyone to share their own cultural heritage and lived experience. Through in-person screenings, lively panel discussions, and digital storytelling, the campaign sparks timely conversation about migration and belonging.
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists calls The Bengali “a lyrical and poetic documentary that shows how stories and presumptions can change, forging connections that are rich and real — not just to the past, but to the world at large.”

Featuring:
Kavery Kaul, Director, The Bengali
Julie Carmen, Actress, Producer
Najla Zaidi, Director, MPAC® Hollywood Bureau
Moderated by: Lorraine Ali, News and Culture Critic, LA Times

Free Concert: ACJF - Zeena Parker & the Smudges

Thu, Oct 22 · 8:00 PM PDT

The Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230, Culver City, CA, US

Free concert part of Angel City Jazz Festival

Date: October 22, 2026 @ 8:00 pm

Venue: Wende Museum - A-Frame Theater
10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230

Free but you must register:
https://angelcityjazz.com/event/zeena-parkins-how-she-works-the-smudges/

Donate to support this free concert: https://angelcityjazz.com/zeena-parkins-fundraising-page/

SCHEDULE

8:00pm – The Smudges
Genre defying compositions, daring improvisations and electronically manipulated sounds; The Smudges are ‘cellist’ Maggie Parkins and violinist Jeff Gauthier.
More Info

9:15pm – Zeena Parkins
With custom designed electronics, guitar pedals, bows, bolts, bells, corks, samples, sponges and visuals, the beginnings of a new solo project has emerged, How She Works.
More Info

### About

The Angel City Jazz Festival/Jazz Refractions was conceived in 2008 as a vehicle to present the best contemporary West Coast jazz, new music and beyond.
Since then it has grown into an essential multi-week celebration of creative live music from around the world, at some of the most exciting & prestigious venues in LA, such as LACMA, REDCAT at Disney Hall, the Nimoy, the World Stage, the Sierra Madre Playhouse and 2220 Arts + Archives.

As of 2026, the festival has been renamed Jazz Refractions. Jazz is the source light, and Angel City is the prism. The music featured at Jazz Refractions is rooted in the jazz tradition of radical improvisation, freedom, and technical mastery. However, once it passes through the Angel City’s lens, it bends, distorts, and shatters into entirely new forms unrestricted by musical genres.