NEW BRASS QUINTET IN SANTA MONICA

Getting together five musicians who are scattered across North America can be tricky--but not impossible. Members of the New Brass Quintet are based in Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Nova Scotia and Alabama.

In a varied program at Santa Monica College on Wednesday evening, the players proved that concentration and congeniality can overcome logistical problems and limited rehearsal time.

The concert, like many brass programs, was a kind of jambalaya, but trumpeter James Tinsley kept matters in focus by delivering informal commentary between selections.

Opening with a Renaissance dance by Claude Le Jeune, New Brass quickly demonstrated its fine blend and rhythmic synergy. These musicians are not especially assertive players; they favor a more smooth-edged, mellow sound. Three Pieces by early romanticist Ludwig Maurer and Richard Brown’s arrangement of some Bartok piano pieces gave the quintet ample opportunity to exhibit its cantabile playing.

Although arrangements made up the better part of the agenda, the ensemble offered some original brass works by American neoclassicists. It gave energetic, polished readings of John Cheetham’s bubbly Scherzo and Jack End’s jazz-influenced “Three Salutations,” and brought introspective insight to a slow movement from Rule Beasley’s Quintet.

Lighter selections completed the proceedings, but the five musicians--trumpeter Robert Howard, hornist Robert Watt, trombonist Gordon Simms, tubist James Jenkins and Tinsley--maintained their high standards. They brought considerable sensitivity to Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” and rendered Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” with elan. G.W.E. Friedrich’s “Ellen Bayne Quickstep” served as an impressive pyrotechnic display.

Three dozen listeners sat on stage, since all 250 seats in the auditorium were filled. A standing ovation elicited a pair of encores.