Turning to the avant-garde jazz of Thelonious Monk, Clayton's version of Evidence preserved the composer's offbeat, astringent harmonies and quirky rhythms. Only in a slow, overly slick rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael classic Heart and Soul did Clayton briefly falter (after a lovely introductory duet for flute and bass).

Hamilton took the honors with a brilliant, lengthy percussive riff as introduction to an unabashedly sweet orchestration of Back Home Again in Indiana. A native Hoosier, Hamilton pounded away at lightning pace in an upbeat rhythm fest.

The program's second half was considerably more ambitious, melding classical and jazz traditions with the combined jazz band and Mancini Institute Orchestra. Clayton's Open Me First was commissioned by the late composer-conductor Jack Elliott, founder of the Mancini Institute (in its first incarnation in Los Angeles). Initially, Open Me First seems like another big-band score with strings added. However, Clayton's piece takes on a life of its own with lively string and elegant wind invention that recalls the perfumed scores of Jacques Ibert and Jean Francaix.

MUSICAL BLENDThe C Zone, also written for the Mancini ensemble, is a mini piano concerto. By not attempting a lengthy, overly ambitious work, Clayton has succeeded where numerous other composers have failed in the attempt to blend jazz piano with large-scale orchestral concepts. This blues-oriented score is filled with sensuous melodies and spirited flights of pianistic exuberance. Angelo Versace, a fleet-fingered keyboard dynamo, dazzled in his solo turn. This University of Miami student is a major talent. Clayton's Jubilation Celebration is a joy-filled, New Orleans-flavored feast, abetted by great brass playing and lustrous, agile strings under the composer's meticulous direction. For an encore, Hamilton returned with his own composition Max -- definitely (in the words of a Mancini song) ``le jazz hot.''