Func­tion­al Impro­visa­tion, 2017

by Terry Day and Mar­cus Coates

Per­form­ance at Wil­li­am Mor­ris Museum, London

Com­mis­sioned by Cre­ate, London

Audi­ence mem­bers were invited to bring to the per­form­ance a ques­tion they have struggled to answer for them­selves. Using impro­vised per­cus­sion by Terry Day and move­ment and vocal­isa­tion by Mar­cus Coates, they worked togeth­er to cre­ate a com­bined lan­guage that aimed to respond prag­mat­ic­ally to these ques­tions. Their use of impro­vised per­form­ance as a socially func­tion­al tool is an attempt to employ their dis­cip­lines as com­plex and pur­pose­ful modes of expres­sion. The forms of per­form­ance that they inhab­it offers them a route to non-con­scious under­stand­ing through phys­ic­al activ­ity and play, a meth­od that expands the pos­sib­il­it­ies of cre­at­ive think­ing, bring­ing thought into the realm of move­ment and sound mak­ing. Their aim is to work for the audi­ence, to cre­ate per­form­ances that are insight­ful, offer­ing new reflec­tions on the ques­tions and pos­sible answers.

Ques­tions included:

Why is the world so angry?

What is good enough?

How do we find cer­tainty, or do we?

Should art always be act­ively challenging?

Terry Day is an impro­viser, multi-instru­ment­al­ist, lyr­i­cist, song­writer, visu­al artist and poet. He is a ​‘first gen­er­a­tion’ pion­eer impro­viser from the 1960s. A self-taught musi­cian in a fam­ily of musi­cians, he began impro­vising on the drums with his broth­er in 1955. In the early 1960s he formed the Hardy Hol­man Day trio focus­ing on free impro­visa­tion. Later he became part of Kil­burn & the Highroads, a band led by Ian Dury. Shar­ing their interest in visu­al art and paint­ing, Terry and Ian both stud­ied at Waltham­stow School of Art and later at the Roy­al Col­lege of Art, Lon­don. As an art stu­dent in the 1960s he was a pion­eer of impro­visa­tion, free jazz & exper­i­ment­al music. Day also formed a duo with Derek Bailey in the late 1960s and was a reg­u­lar mem­ber of The Con­tinu­ous Music Ensemble, later known as The People Band. Since then he has col­lab­or­ated with many music­al luminar­ies, groups, dan­cers, paint­ers, poets and per­formed in theatre, events, and rock & roll. Some of his music­al part­ners include Derek Bailey, Steve Beres­ford, Phil Min­ton, Evan Park­er, Char­lotte Hug, John Rus­sell, Rhodri Dav­is, Misha Men­gel­berg, Tony Oxley, Marten Altena, Phil Wachs­man and John Tchikai.