Bill Cunliffe (b. 1956) is an American jazz pianist and composer with a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. He has written books on jazz, won the 1989 Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition, recorded jazz CDs, and taught at Cal State U. Fullerton. He has composed works for big band, orchestra, chamber groups, and choir, including short pieces in the style of the Chopin Preludes and Bach Inventions. Several of his compositions have been nominated for the Grammy Award. The Tuba Concerto was composed for the great Los Angeles studio and orchestral tuba player, Jim Self, who performs the work on this CD, in both the orchestral version and the piano accompaniment version (with Bill Cunliffe).
The concerto starts with a pleasant melody, and a bit of jazz lift and rhythms. The tuba solos are warm, even affectionate, questioning, and display the instrument’s wide range. A second melody, starting about 6 minutes in, is mildly sad, as if recounting an extended reminiscence of a lost love. Peace descends at about 8:45 and yearning at 10:45, joy at 11:15, and the excitement of Latin dance rhythms at 11:45, with tuba and orchestra gyrating and showing off together and in solo moments. A tuba solo at 15:38 enthusiastically explores the instrument’s highs and lows, including a few elephantine snorts. In the final 30 seconds, everyone has a last fling. The piano version reflects Cunliffe’s knowledge of jazz piano harmonies, rhythms, filigree, and register effects. Piano and tuba are well-balanced partners, trading melodies back and forth. The piano part relishes delicious, mildly dissonant harmonies.

1. Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra (orchestral version) (17:42)
2. Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra (piano and tuba version (17:42)