As part of Dada Days in Columbia, 701 Center for Contemporary Art presents a solo performance by Chicago improv jazz great Tim Daisy: Tim Daisy On The Ground: An Amusing Mess. The concert title refers both to Daisy creating the performance while sitting on the ground and a comment by Dada artist Marcel Duchamp about one of his artworks. The concert will take place in 701 CCA’s artist’s loft on Wednesday, March 10, 7:30 pm. Admission is $5 per person.

            With the concert, sound artist, percussionist, and composer Daisy, who has played in Columbia numerous times, will present a site-specific, electro-acoustic solo performance. He will use an ever-expanding arsenal of both traditional and non-traditional instruments, including radios, turntables, gongs, chains, bells, a snare drum, brushes, scrap metal, circular saw blades, sticks, and alarm clocks. “An Amusing Mess explores the art of sound collage,” Daisy says, “in a solo improvisational context with multi-layered free improvisation, for which all of the instruments and objects will be spread out and assembled on the floor. “

            Daisy’s On The Ground performances are site-specific works. Taking location into account, the set up for the performance changes depending on the size and layout of the used performance space. Whether performed indoors or outdoors, in a large auditorium or a small living room, the bottom of a swimming pool or on top of a tall building, every performance is integrated into and affected by the environment that it presents itself in. The architecture of the space influences the architecture of the improvising.

            Multidisciplinary in scope, the performance incorporates acoustic and electronic sound, physical movement, and visual elements throughout every performance. Combining the use of traditional and nontraditional instruments, both acoustic and electronic, with the spatial considerations of the performance environment, On The Ground: An Amusing Mess presents a creative and unique atmosphere for the art of solo improvisation.            

            Adding to Tim Daisy’s 15 + years as a percussionist and sound artist working as a solo performer as well as in various groups connected to the international experimental music scene, this performance presents a fresh perspective on contemporary sound art.