‘It started in the 1930s in Chicago churches, and now it has swept all over the place.’

They’ve had chamber music, jazz, a Balinese brass and percussion band and African tribal dancers. But on Saturday, Marymount College’s Concerts on the Hill audience will find itself in the world of black American gospel music.

“We want to acquaint everyone with this marvelous, rich Afro-American choral history,” said veteran musician and teacher Albert McNeil, who is bringing his 25 Jubilee Singers to the 300-seat college auditorium in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Their specialty is the unaccompanied spiritual, a legacy of slavery--with titles like “Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen” and “Go Down Moses”--that is marked by “simplistic texts, laments and soulful expressions,” McNeil said.

But the Los Angeles-based singing group does not neglect contemporary black gospel music, with its rousing jazz and rhythm-and-blues influences and instrumentation.

“It started in the 1930s in Chicago churches, and now it has swept all over the place,” said McNeil, whose own musical roots are in the church and in the study of black music history. He described his music as a kaleidoscope of Caribbean, Brazilian and Afro-American styles.

Opera, with a strong jazz flavor, will also have a place on the program Saturday as the singers present excerpts from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

Marymount’s Concerts on the Hill series was started eight years ago by Sandi Clay, the college’s music director. “We wanted to provide the South Bay and Peninsula communities with a close-in opportunity to hear music of the highest caliber,” she said by telephone from Toronto, where she is on leave. Equally important was making music available on campus to Marymount’s students.

The series focused on the classics at first, but Clay said that sparse audiences quickly persuaded the school that people “wanted music of a wider nature, more jazz and lighter music.” Over the years, attractions have included the Los Angeles City College Jazz Band, Los Cancioneros choral group, the piano and vocal duo of Paul and Annette Smith, the Westwood Wind Quintet and the Ross Tomkins Trio.

Two events each season have become traditional: a Christmas concert featuring the college’s choral and jazz groups and a Sunday afternoon festival for children between 3 and 12 years old. They handle and play percussion instruments, have their faces painted and are entertained by mimes. This year, the children’s event is on April 17.

In conjunction with the six-concert series, Marymount offers a music course in which students get one unit of credit for attending three concerts and the previews that are held in advance.

“We are trying to involve our students in a varied knowledge of different types of music,” said Rosalie Baligian, a Marymount administrator involved in the concert series. She said previews often prove to be a highlight of the evening for the students. “When the Westwood Wind Quintet was here, each artist spoke about the instruments they play and how one plays,” she said. “The artists had a good rapport with the students.”

Before the 8 p.m. concert Saturday, McNeil will do a 6 p.m. preview, presenting a broad picture of black religious and choral music. He said he hopes that the “insights and background” will give the concert more meaning.

For Marymount’s largely white audience, McNeil and college officials said, the Jubilee Singers’ gospel music may be a new experience. “We may surprise them with such a rich heritage,” McNeil said.

The concert may also draw audience members from racial minorities; the college mailed flyers to black choirs and churches. “We tried to target the audience,” Clay said.

McNeil and his musicians are bringing a long history and international reputation to the Peninsula. Since their founding 24 years ago, the Jubilee Singers have presented 1,800 concerts in 59 countries.

McNeil himself commutes between Los Angeles and UC Davis in northern California, where he is head of music education and conducts the college choir.

“I enjoy being a frequent flier,” he said, explaining that an airline bonus program already has sent him to the Caribbean.

Times jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote in 1981 that the Jubilee Singers “have been called one of America’s great cultural assets. The universal appeal of their message, the unique blend of exaltation and discipline in their recitals, has drawn critical acclaim in Beirut, Rabat, Cairo, Jerusalem, Belgrade, Sierra Leone, Guadalajara, Dubrovnik, East Berlin and West Berlin.”

Marymount’s Clay said she has been trying to bring them to the Peninsula for a long time. You can see why it’s taken so long.