A Hymn to Martin Luther King Jr.

When James Newton Jr. was 18, his cousin took him to the Memphis motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.

That was 1971, and King had been dead three years.

“The feeling I had when I was in that room, when I was on that balcony . . . “ Newton recalled. “When Dr. King was killed, my father cried, and I could never remember him crying before.”

Newton is now 35, a world-renowned jazz flutist and a teacher at CalArts in Valencia. On Monday, when King’s birthday is nationally observed, his musical tribute to the civil rights leader will be broadcast across the world on National Public Radio.

“The King’s Way” combines spirituals with classical music, an odd partnership that attempts to evoke the story of King’s life. Newton struggled for months to compose this complex piece after being asked to take part in NPR’s two-hour program, “King: A Global Celebration.”

“I felt like I had to come up with something that carried a lot of weight,” Newton said. “It was something I had to pray about a lot. This piece has rejuvenated my faith, rejuvenated me.”

The New CalArts 20th Century Players will perform Newton’s work at 11:30 a.m. from the Trans-America Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. The players, a collection of faculty and student musicians, will also do a piece by the school’s noted composer, Ed Bland.

These works, broadcast live, will be part of an NPR program that includes separate performances by the New England Conservatory Jazz Orchestra in Boston and the Indiana University Opera Theater in Bloomington.

NPR invited CalArts to join the program because the New 20th Century Players had recently been on the network’s show, “Performance Today.”

“It just seemed natural for us to have them represent the West Coast,” said an NPR spokeswoman.

Alan Chaplin, dean of CalArts’ music school, asked Bland and Newton to come up with original music for the event.

The son of a career Army man, Newton grew up listening to big-band jazz, gospel and blues in Germany, Arkansas and various other locations. He learned to play the electric bass at age 13, then dabbled in R&B; before falling under the influence of Jimi Hendrix.

While studying at Cal State L.A., Newton took up the flute and embarked on a career in jazz that has included numerous record albums and performances everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Berlin National Gallery. In 1983 and 1984, music critics voted Newton the top flutist in Down Beat magazine’s yearly poll. In 1985, Times critic Don Snowden called him “one of the most acclaimed new figures in modern jazz.”

Newton composed “The King’s Way” for flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, Fender electric bass, two percussionists and a keyboard player. The piece unfolds in three parts, the first section being a prayer of thanksgiving inspired by Biblical passages on the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk.

“I believe that Dr. King was truly a prophet,” Newton said. “I decided to go through the Bible and deal with different sections that deal with prophets and prophecies.”

The second section opens with rhythmical ostinato and 12-tone language to suggest the tumult that swirled in and around the civil rights marches. This clamor eventually subsides into a single piano, playing the traditional spiritual “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”

In the final minutes of the piece, the music offers a sense of resolution, inspired by Luke 6:22.

“It deals with King knowing that he’s leaving, that he’s going to the Promised Land,” Newton said. “His work is done on this earth.”

Newton said this piece has been the most challenging he has composed. It has been a labor of technical complexity--trying to find a middle ground between classical composition and a cappella spirituals--and it has been a labor of love.

“This was not an easy experience. But it’s important for people to remember that he was concerned about the rights of people of all colors, women and men.”

“King: A Global Celebration” will be broadcast on KUSC-FM 91.5 beginning at noon Monday.