September 14–21, 2000

music

Jazz Prep

Toshi Makihara

Founded just a year ago, Baltimore’s High Zero Festival has already emerged as an experimental music summit of national significance. In its test flight last September, two concerts sold out (the remaining two came close), and total attendance was estimated at 700. Version 2.0 may well surpass that triumph; this year’s four-day Festival will feature more than thirty improvisers — some from as far afield as London and Amsterdam — in unrehearsed, willfully precarious musical situations. Many of the artists will be playing together for the first time.

High Zero grew out of the Red Room Collective, an experimental music hub adjacent to a used book and record store. John Berndt, a saxophonist and partial owner of the store, started a weekly performance series there in 1996. To his surprise, it took off. Four years after its inception, Red Room is both a local hang and an international network of musicians.

What sparked the Collective in the first place? According to Berndt, the impulse actually began in Philly. In the mid-’90s, the saxophonist participated in INFEST, an event held at the Lancaster Avenue dive Killtime. "It was a great festival," he recalls, "It brought together people from all over the country, and it was very idealistically organized." Shortly thereafter, Berndt toured the country with fellow saxophonist and former Philadelphian Jack Wright (whom Berndt calls "one of the greatest improvisers of the 20th Century"). It was the spirit of INFEST, and Wright, that Berndt hoped to recreate and foster.

Coincidentally, Wright (now a resident of Boulder, CO) will perform here this week, as part of an eight-member High Zero delegation (dubbed the High Zero Preparation Festival). So will Philly-area musicians (and active Red Room members) Toshi Makihara and Dave Champion. The remaining players hail from Chicago and San Francisco. Expect two challenging, chance-taking sets.

—Nate Chinen

Wed., Sept. 20, 9:30 p.m. Plays & Players Theatre Club, 1714 Delancey St., 215-735-0630. The High Zero Festival takes place in Baltimore, MD, from Thu., Sept. 21 through Sun., Sept. 24. For more info, see www.redroom.org. Read Nate Chinen’s interview with John Berndt at www.citypaper.net