Taster! Event Offers an Experimental Music Buffet (and Food, Too)

As organizer of the annual High Zero Festival and the experimental hive the Red Room, the High Zero Foundation (HZF) has been an integral part of the city’s arts community for more than a decade now, and a forerunner/sparkplug of Baltimore’s current arts explosion. But the HZ folks also understand that there are plenty of Baltimoreans who are perhaps unfamiliar with or even intimidated by the very idea of free improvisation and experimental music. So tonight, beginning at 8 p.m. sharp, HZF hosts Taster!, a free event at 2640 Space featuring a stellar line-up of local avant types playing brief sets in a casual setting with wine and nibbles in hopes of reaching new listeners.

“This event is designed to be a thumbnail introduction to the music and the people who make it,” HZF President John Berndt writes in an e-mail, “with an emphasis on fun and novelty.”

If you aren’t familiar with Baltimore’s experimental scene or its players, the following litany of names might not mean much to you. If you are familiar, feel free to be amazed to see this kind of all-star line-up on a local stage outside the annual High Zero blowout itself. For newcomers or veterans, it’s not a night to be missed. The sets include:

Neil Feather: inventions
Eric Franklin: inventions
Dan Breen: inventions

John Dierker: bass clarinet
Samuel Burt: bass clarinet
Britton Powell: bass
Will Redman: drums

Susan Alcorn: pedal steel guitar
Paul Neidhardt: drums
Chris Pumphrey: alto saxophone

Andy Hayleck: inventions
Ayako Katoaka: inventions
Peter Blasser: inventions

Audrey Chen: cello, voice
Shodekeh: human beat-boxing
Brian Sacawa: saxophones

Tags: Experimental, high zero, john berndt, red room