Jim Shearer holds a D. M. A. in Performance and Literature and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He teaches tuba, euphonium, music history, and music appreciation to graduate, undergraduate, and honors students at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he holds the joint titles of Regents Professor of Music and Distinguished Achievement Professor. In addition, he presents concerts, master classes, and lectures as a Yamaha Performing Artist. An active classical soloist, Dr. Shearer has appeared throughout the United States as a guest artist with various wind ensembles and orchestras and in solo and chamber recital performances in The Great American Tuba Show and The Great American Trio. In the early 1990s, he traveled to Switzerland as a participant in the 47th Concours International d’Exécution Musicale, the first time this prestigious competition included the tuba as a solo instrument. He has toured Japan as a member of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, playing concerts and recording a compact disc for the Sony Classical label. In 2006, Shearer toured Colombia with the NMSU Faculty Brass Quintet and Wind Ensemble for the United States Department of State. While in Colombia, he performed for over 25,000 people at the national band festival and gave educational classes in Bogotá and Paipa. He is a former Principal Tubist with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, the current Principal Tubist for both the Roswell and Las Cruces Symphony Orchestras, and a former member of El Paso Brass, with whom he released three commercial recordings. His playing can also be heard on blues artist Eric Bibb’s CD Diamond Days on Telarc Records. During a regional broadcast on NPR, Saint Paul Sundayhost Bill McGlaughlin referred to Shearer and his tuba playing as the “lowest of the low brass!” (We think he meant it as a compliment.)

LA’s finest are on hand for the ‘ride’!  An extremely enjoyable collaboration that ended in a ‘tight’, world-class large ensemble project with incredible charts & solos…In addition to playing great solos, the soloists’ effervescent personalities gave rise to many enjoyable moments during the recording process. This is a Special Recording and was one of the last sessions of the late, great Carl Saunders.

The follow-up to Pillow’s critically acclaimed 2018 release contains an added section of French Horns to bring different colors to yet more relatively unknown 70’s era Miles’ music. The band features soloists from a who’s who of NYC musicians including tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, trombonist Alan Ferber and trumpeters Scott Wendholt, Tim Hagans and Clay Jenkins as well as a stellar rhythm section.  As in the previous release, “Electric Miles”, this set of music comes from a particular period in Miles’ oeuvre; 1969-75. Some of these titles were represented merely as bass lines, and Miles would, in live performance, segue from one to the next by musical gestures from his trumpet. The band would follow him this way. His music from 1972 forward became somewhat chaotic, yet focused on energy and intense playing from the band. Players such as Chick Corea, Steve Grossman, Mtume, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Billy Hart, Dave Liebman, and many others were the driving force behind this mostly mis-understood music that helped usher in a new direction in jazz.

Vocals – Matt Catingub

In one remarkable recording, pianist Robert Hamilton has gathered works by Ravel and Rachmaninov that not only show each composer at his best, but illustrate the heretofore unexamined relationship between them! Enclosed 4,400-word program notes explore the subject, including the inspirational and personal similarities between these two ostensibly dissimilar geniuses.The notes also reveal many little-known facts and unravel some longstanding mysteries surrounding these exciting and superbly executed compositions.

LA’s finest are on hand for the ‘ride’!  An extremely enjoyable collaboration that ended in a ‘tight’, world-class large ensemble project with incredible charts & solos…In addition to playing great solos, the soloists’ effervescent personalities gave rise to many enjoyable moments during the recording process. This is a Special Recording and was one of the last sessions of the late, great Carl Saunders.

The follow-up to Pillow’s critically acclaimed 2018 release contains an added section of French Horns to bring different colors to yet more relatively unknown 70’s era Miles’ music. The band features soloists from a who’s who of NYC musicians including tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, trombonist Alan Ferber and trumpeters Scott Wendholt, Tim Hagans and Clay Jenkins as well as a stellar rhythm section.  As in the previous release, “Electric Miles”, this set of music comes from a particular period in Miles’ oeuvre; 1969-75. Some of these titles were represented merely as bass lines, and Miles would, in live performance, segue from one to the next by musical gestures from his trumpet. The band would follow him this way. His music from 1972 forward became somewhat chaotic, yet focused on energy and intense playing from the band. Players such as Chick Corea, Steve Grossman, Mtume, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Billy Hart, Dave Liebman, and many others were the driving force behind this mostly mis-understood music that helped usher in a new direction in jazz.

Vocals – Matt Catingub

In one remarkable recording, pianist Robert Hamilton has gathered works by Ravel and Rachmaninov that not only show each composer at his best, but illustrate the heretofore unexamined relationship between them! Enclosed 4,400-word program notes explore the subject, including the inspirational and personal similarities between these two ostensibly dissimilar geniuses.The notes also reveal many little-known facts and unravel some longstanding mysteries surrounding these exciting and superbly executed compositions.