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2004-10-19 - 9:07 p.m.
sweet sweet music
A couple weeks ago, the 6th year of the High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music was held here in Baltimore. I've gone to at least one show for 4 of the 6 years now, even though I'm not a huge fan of that kind of experimental music and don't go to the shows the festival's organizers put on year round at the Red Room. But I think it's cool that a unique annual festival like this has been able to flourish here in Baltimore and I always try to come out and support it, especially since it offers a chance to see so many different kinds of musicians collaborate. Some of the more prominent musicians at this year's festival included Sabir Mateen, Joe McPhee, Daniel Higgs from Lungfish, and Andrea Parkins. The festival runs for 4 nights every year, from Thursday to Sunday, and I had off work the last 2 nights of it this year and tried to go Saturday, but when I got there, it was sold out and I couldn't get in, which I wasn't really expecting. I've never had trouble getting in before, and I don't really get there very early. But while I was there I bought a ticket for the Sunday show to make sure I'd be able to get in the next night. When I walked up Preston Street before the show, there were various musicians on the sidewalk all up and down the block, mostly horns, performing guerilla style out on the street, making noises out in the open city air, which, despite me kind of being prepared to see that kind of thing, really wowed me, it was just so surreal and beautiful. Inside, the first of the night's 5 sets was a solo performance by Todd Whitman, who played a saw, not really a singing saw, but he applied all manners of objects and instruments to it to make a ridiculous range of noises, which mostly were of the nails-on-chalkboard variety. The 2nd set was comprised of a percussionist, a cellist, and a dancer, and was definitely one of the odder performances I've seen at HZ. At the beginning of the set, the cello was hanging suspended a couple feet above the floor on a wire from the ceiling, and the cellist, Audrey Chen, was laying underneath it, batting at it like a cat, while the dancer did some weird abstract movements and the percussionist tapped and scratched away at the walls and the head of a bass drum. Eventually, Chen took the cello off the wire and played it a little toward the end of the set. The 3rd set featured 2 reed players and a bassist, but the best part of it was Andrea Parkins, who played an accordian and ran it through a bunch of effects so it sounded really weird and cool. I want to hear more music from her. The last 2 sets weren't as interesting as the earlier ones but had their moments. There was a point in the last set where there was one guy kind of tap dancing and sliding his feet across the floor, one guy scatting, a woman singing into the mouthpiece of her saxophone, and a guy tapping his fingers on the top of a piano as if he was playing the keys. Sometimes shows like this are just an opportunity for people to act like pretentious spazzes and not really make any music or even any interesting sounds, which kind of annoys me. But I always try to check out one or two HZ performances every year, and I'm always glad I did. -al
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