Improvisation is practiced within many fields of music. Scales, song forms, and rhythmical patterns are used in numerous musical traditions as structures to be explored by improvising musicians. These musical elements filter out certain sounds, providing performers with a more focused palette of musical possibilities with which to express themselves. In freely improvised music, there are no rules governing musical expression, allowing performers of this music absolute creative freedom. When considering free improvisation, the negative connotations of chaos or disorder can easily spring to mind, however, freely improvised music often contains many qualities of composed music such as form and thematic development. The notion that improvisation is a form of spontaneous composition is an idea that has pervaded musical circles for many years.

Thomas Robb's research explores the implementation of compositional concepts in improvisational practice by analysing the work of Tyshawn Sorey. Sorey (b.1980) is a prolific composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist, who has performed with Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Vijay Iyer, and Muhal Richard Abrams among many others. His work as a composer has earned him a MacArthur Fellowship (2017), as well as a nomination as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (2023). Through analysis of Sorey’s musical output, Robb observed the use of numerous improvisational frameworks which allow Sorey to organise and structure his improvisations.

This recital will showcase and document the implementation of these concepts in Robb's own improvisational solo drumset practice.