Jazz lovers young and old -- of jazz new and old -- will all be able to enjoy the music of Stacey Kent and the Marian McPartland Trio tonight.

Marian McPartland, who will turn 88 on Monday, is a Grammy-winning jazz piano legend. But Kent, more than 50 years McPartland's junior, has released six best-selling albums herself.

"This performance is truly a highlight of our Cool Heat jazz series this season," Laura Sullivan, Center for the Performing Arts marketing and communications director, said.

Kent and her band will open tonight's show. McPartland will follow on piano, accompanied by Gary Mazzaroppi on bass and Glenn Davis on drums. The show will close with Kent and the trio performing together.

Both Kent and McPartland will bring their own brand of jazz to Penn State.

McPartland has hosted Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio (NPR) for more than 25 years.

The show, which is NPR's longest running program, has had guests including legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson and Steely Dan.

Performing professionally for more than 65 years, McPartland has attained a broad catalogue of songs. Taking up piano at the age of 3, she said she learned a lot of music from watching the BBC as a child in England.

"I know millions of tunes," she said.

Sullivan said she is looking forward to the concert.

"Marian McPartland is a legend and one of the most skilled practitioners of piano jazz. We are thrilled to welcome her to the Center for the Performing Arts," Sullivan said.

In spite of her many years in the business, McPartland said she still mostly plays by ear.

"I don't read [music] very well," she said. "I can do enough with my ears, though. I can sort of keep pace with what's going on."

McPartland and the rest of her trio play a lot of traditional and Dixieland jazz. She said she thinks neither musical style is as common as it used to be.

"New music is very avant-garde," she said.

However, McPartland said she does embrace other types of music, including that of co-headliner Kent.

Kent, a romantic standards singer, is both critically and popularly acclaimed. She has performed at venues around the world, including at the U.S. Open tennis championships and Clint Eastwood's 70th birthday party. She is currently working on her next album.

Sullivan said Kent has been compared to great jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday but has a style all her own.

"Her voice just reaches out and grabs you and makes your ears perk up and listen," Sullivan said. "Stacey Kent is an incredible vocalist who is right at home singing her own fresh and heart-felt interpretations of romantic standards."

Kent's voice is versatile which allows her to sing in a variety of styles.

"She's got a very unique voice that allows her to go between different genres," Gunter Schroder, Kent's manager, said. "She can go from jazz to pop to soul very easily."

For the show's culmination, both artists will collaborate, even though they have very different experiences.

"I would like to have [Kent] on my radio show," McPartland said.