Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Diego Nebel Alumnus Tom Luer

For music fans, being able to say "I'm with the band" is the stuff of daytime fantasies.

For one 1997 UW-Eau Claire saxophone performance graduate, that dream is now reality. He is part of the band.

Alumnus Tom Luer has been touring the nation performing with hip-hop artist Queen Latifah since September to promote her new album, "Trav'lin' Light." Luer plays the alto and tenor saxophones as well as the flute and alto flute.

Luer said it is an "absolute joy" to work with Latifah and considers himself fortunate to be able to perform with such an "amazing musician" and "down-to-earth person."

"The first rehearsal when she walked in, that's when it kind of hit me, 'Wow this is a dream. This can't really be happening,'" he said.

Eau Claire's director of jazz studies Bob Baca said Luer was already an excellent musician when he was the lead alto saxophone player in Eau Claire's Jazz Ensemble I. Baca said he often talks about Luer to his current students and said Luer's success does not surprise him at all.

"I think for him, it's only the beginning," Baca said. "I think within the next decade, he'll be a household name. If not a household name to the general public, certainly to the recording industry in Los Angeles. We're very proud of him."

"Trav'lin' Light" is more jazz-oriented than Latifah's previous albums. Because she performed in the musicals "Chicago" and "Hairspray," the change did not surprise Luer.

"I knew she was very capable of it," Luer said. "I was very pleasantly surprised at how well she does it; she sounds like a veteran jazz singer. Not only does she captivate the audience, she captivates myself and the band as well."

The job offer came to Luer when a friend, Bob Shepherd, a saxophone player in the "American Idol" band, was unable to tour with Latifah and recommended Luer instead, which he said was just a matter of being in the "right place at the right time."

Luer earned his master's degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. He was also a top soloist while studying for his doctorate in 2003 at the University of North Texas, which Baca and Luer describe as the largest music school with one of the best jazz programs in the country.

Luer said Baca taught him to never stop pushing himself musically and to show others kindness, two lessons Luer said still benefit him today.

Originally from Chippewa Falls, Luer said he also thanks the late Doug Greenhalgh, who was the band director while Luer attended Chippewa Falls High School, for giving him a strong foundation in music. Greenhalgh died in the Chippewa Falls bus crash in 2005.

"I know he's smiling right now, thinking about one of his students on tour with Latifah," he said. "I'm very grateful to him."

After performing in Biloxi, Miss., and Lafayette, La., this weekend, Luer will take the stage with Latifah again on Tuesday in Naples and spend the rest of the week in Florida. The "Trav'lin' Light" Tour wraps up on Nov. 28 in Tacoma, Wash. For more information, visit Luer's Web site.

After performing and networking in Los Angeles for the past two years, Luer said he is glad his work is finally paying off.

"I hope that this, still being new, is an additional foot in the door for similar opportunities to come my way with other artists, as well as with Queen Latifah."

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