Susan Pascal trained as a classical percussionist, yes, but she also grew up listening to her parents' Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra records.

She fell in love with the swinging combos that backed those singers and their mix of melody and rhythm. And that's how Pascal ended up a technically skilled percussionist who would rather fuse jazz and pop on the vibraphone than be just another interchangeable part in an orchestra.

"In a combo, there are fewer people, and each player plays a specific, essential role," Pascal explained in a phone interview earlier this week from Seattle.

Her current combo, The Susan Pascal Quartet, which plays The Seasons Performance Hall tonight, does that with particular élan. Its versions of spirited fusion numbers such as Ray Bryant's "Cubano Chant" have made the quartet among the most dynamic -- and highly regarded -- in Seattle's jazz scene.

"It's a fantastic group," Pascal says. "I gotta say, I really love playing with these guys."

Though lineup changes are the norm in gigging jazz combos, the quartet has found mainstays in drummer Mark Ivester and bassist Chuck Deardorf. The former specializes in Brazilian and Cuban sounds, which the quartet has embraced of late and will further explore during its show tonight. The latter heads up the jazz department at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts and has played with luminaries such as Chet Baker and Charlie Byrd.

Like Pascal herself, Deardorf has a classical music pedigree.

"But he also has the practical experience of having been a first-call bassist in Seattle for decades," she said.

It adds up to a combo that has the chops to experiment without sounding silly for going too far afield. A guy like Deardorf, for instance, can take off on an inventive solo without cutting the momentum the combo has in song. And the combo as a whole can flit from standards to Latin jazz to jazz-pop fusion.

"I like a lot of different kinds of music," she says. "So the sound of the group could be described as eclectic."

Vibes, as a vibraphone is called in jazz argot, lend themselves to such eclecticism by virtue of their innate versatility. Looking like a souped-up xylophone and sounding somewhere between a key instrument and a percussion instrument, vibes appealed to Pascal as early as high school. She listened to musicians like Lionel Hampton, the instrument's jazz pioneer, and Gary Burton, who fused jazz with rock years before Miles Davis recorded "Bitches Brew."

"I liked jazz players that managed to incorporate lyrical and melodic styles of music with rhythm that can really grab people," Pascal says.

It's a sound she suspects will be perfect for an intimate concert venue like The Seasons, which she hasn't played before but has heard plenty about.

"I've heard glowing, wonderful reports from fellow musicians," she says.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

WHAT: Susan Pascal Quartet.

WHEN: 7:30 tonight.

WHERE: The Seasons Performance Hall, 101 N. Naches Ave.

TICKETS: $15, available at www.theseasonsyakima.com or 509-453-1888.