During one of my post-doc, while I was observing chimpanzees, I witnessed a very special bout of drumming that lasted for an unusual amount of time. Anybody listening to it would agree that it resembles what a human drum player would do (drumming with rhythm, outside any particular context, and with focus from the performer on its « solo »).
We published two papers on this question, and one of our new project is now to investigate the musicality of rooks’ vocalisations.