Tom has written orchestral, chamber and piano music.

My Voice, A Trigger for Change (2021)

This piece used a substantial poem from W.A. beat poet Fable Goldsmith from her recent publication ‘Bloodlines’ to produce a novel piece for the large forces of Big Band combined with Jazz Vocal Choir. The piece sits within a suite of new commissions (curated by the researcher) entitled ‘Grand Designs – Jazz and the World’, and composition and performances occurred throughout 2021. The written text in turn produced musical outcomes that injected a novel sense of jazz phrasing, changing tempi and compositional form and structure. The Baroque device of ‘word painting’ is harnessed, as are more direct theatrical-like interruptions of mood and emotion (phrases that juxtapose outrage against a Dixieland style etc). The piece both in concept and artefact sustains the idea that large jazz ensemble works can be derived from a much wider source of stimuli.