Jim Shearer, Jazz Trio have November world premiere concerts at NMSU, UTEP

NMSU Regents Professor and tubist Jim Shearer will present the world premiere performance of a new work for tuba and jazz trio titled “Cloud Bowling,” written by UTEP composer and pianist Chris Reyman. The show will also feature Shearer performing (on the tuba) the “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio” by noted classical/jazz crossover composer Claude Bolling.

Free concert performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, in the Atkinson Recital Hall inside the NMSU Music Center, 1075 N. Horseshoe St. on the NMSU campus; and at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall, 500 W. University Ave., on the UTEP campus.

Joining Reyman in the jazz trio accompanying Shearer will be UTEP faculty members Erik Unsworth, bass, and Andy Smith, percussion.

Bolling wrote his famous suite for Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1973, and their subsequent recording of that work spent more than 10 years on the Billboard top 40 classical chart, Shearer said. Bolling followed that work with a series of other successful jazz/classical collaborations, but never an original composition for the tuba.

Shearer began learning the flute work on tuba during his college days in the mid-1980s, and this performance will mark the culmination of a lifelong dream to perform and record the entire work on his instrument of choice, he said.

Taking inspiration from Bolling’s suite, Reyman’s composition of “Cloud Bowling” is comprised of seven movements that blend jazz and classical styles and performance practices, Shearer said.

“The composition contains references to seminal jazz composers, along with a more progressive compositional approach with ample amounts of improvisation space for each performer,” Shearer said.

Following this series of live performances, the musicians will be recording both works for release on Summit Records for a CD project they are calling “Cloud Bowling with Claude Bolling.”

For more information about the concert, contact the NMSU Department of Music at 575-646-2601.

Visit music.nmsu.edu.