When jazz, classical collide.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A jazz duo and a classical quartet will play jazz, tango, art songs, arias and spirituals Sunday afternoon in the debut of Chemeketa Community College's new chamber jazz series.

Pianist Darrell Grant, flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and the Magnolia Chamber Ensemble will perform separately and together in a two-hour program beginning at 3 p.m. in the college's auditorium (Building 6), 4000 Lancaster Drive N.E., Salem.

Tickets are $17 at the door or $15 in advance through the Chemeketa Bookstore, [phone].

The program will include pieces by Samuel Barber, J.S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn, plus lesser-known tunes from Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett and Sting, along with original compositions.

Featured will be Grant's arrangements for fluegelhorn, piano and string quartet of four spirituals and the Bill Lee composition "Little Jimmy Fiddler." Also highlighted will be Matheny's ballad "Penumbra," arrangements of the "Habanera" from "Carmen" and of the aria "Oh Mio Babbino Caro" from "Gianni Schicchi" and the premiere of Grant's impressionist treatment, for duo and strings, of Ellington's "African Flower."

Grant and Matheny recently shared a stage with the chamber group Bella Musica at the Oregon Coast Music Festival. Their music often bends genres.

Magnolia has received praise for its performances of Argentine tangos, and is preparing for a concert of Gypsy-influenced music from the classical repertoire and beyond.

Magnolia's members - violinists Adam LaMotte and Greg Ewer, violist Zachary Caretin and cellist Lori Presthus - have performed with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Oregon Symphony, among others.

To hear samples of the music, call the GuardLine at 485-2000 from a touch-tone phone and request category 3733. For more information, call [phone].

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Darrell Grant (left) and Dmitri Matheny will play in Salem this week. Jazz notes