From standards to a duet in Mandarin

Patti Austin singing in Mandarin? Now there’s something you don’t hear every day. But that’s exactly what the versatile pop-jazz vocalist was doing on Saturday at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Center for the Performing Arts.

Austin appeared with Chinese chanteuse Frances Yip in a program billed as “Papillon III,” a reprise of an event held last year in San Francisco to benefit the Jade Ribbon Campaign in its effort to educate the Asian Pacific Islander community about hepatitis B.

In her individual set, Austin offered a brief overview of highlights from her long, productive career. Moving easily from the smooth R&B; of her chart-topping version of “Come to Me” and a sensual rendering of “The Look of Love,” she climaxed with a gleeful, scat-singing romp through “Mr. Paganini” from her Grammy-nominated album “For Ella.”

Yip has been described as the Asian Barbra Streisand, and the similarities, in terms of range, style and manner, were easy to see and hear. An elegant, charismatic presence, she offered spoken remarks in both English and Mandarin. Her songs were equally multicultural, mixing familiar American standards with the numerous hits she has sung for Chinese television series, including her signature number, “Shang Hai Tan.”

It was not until the concert’s final segment, however, that the promised offering of Mandarin singing from Austin finally took place.

Standing side by side with Yip, their two supple voices blending harmoniously, Austin delivered the lyrics with the same sort of consummate musicality that has characterized her work for more than three decades.