Chillin' with cellos

But in their case, something by Beethoven might be followed by an arrangement of a Britney Spears number. A mesmerizing new-age piece might set the stage for an arrangement of Kanye West's rap song "All of the Lights." A Spanish melody might be played back-to-back with a medley of video game themes.

"We're always thinking about what we can do to confuse the audience the most," said Douglas Jenkins, who runs the Portland Cello Project -- or PCP, as it's known to fans.

If nothing else, PCP is proving that a little confusion can go a long way toward building an audience. Their upcoming Saturday program at the Discovery Theatre is already sold out, though tickets are still available for a concert Friday. It was added when the first tickets went more quickly than the Anchorage Concert Association had anticipated.

(Jenkins is just a little disappointed by the extra show. "Most of us have never been to Alaska before," he said. "We thought we'd have an extra day there. But no complaints.")

Interviewed by phone last week as the group drove across Wyoming en route to performances in Salt Lake City, Jenkins said his path to becoming a cellist was "pretty random. It seemed like the most beautiful instrument to me. I liked the way it sounded more than the violin. So I went with the cello and never turned back."

One difference between the violin and its bigger brother, however, is the available repertoire. The fiddle is frequently featured as a solo star; cellos are most heard handling the bass in an orchestral concert.

To step into the spotlight is "the dream, deep down, of every cellist," said Jenkins. He joined a group of fellow cellists in Portland who got together to read through scores and play around with arrangements for their instrument.

"About four years ago, we thought it might be kind of funny to take it into bars and see what would happen," Jenkins said.

No bar wanted to book an all-cello act, however. The group finally prevailed on one establishment to let them play shows on Sundays. In the first gig, the house was half full. Word of mouth did its magic, however, and on their second outing the place sold out.

"From then on it was, 'Let's make a record!' 'Let's go national!' " Jenkins recalled.

Success came not just from their concert appearances and radio play, but from "viral" videos on YouTube. One is "Denmark," a passacaglia -- like Pachelbel's "Canon" -- built on two simultaneous chains of notes: one minor scale rising four notes then falling back, the other a descending chromatic scale. Bach himself would approve. He might even enjoy the animated character that accompanies the music.

But Bach wouldn't be prepared for some of PCP's more radical thrusts. While the group's first bar show was all classical, they soon found themselves collaborating with local rock bands.

"The Portland music community is pretty small and close-knit," said Jenkins. "The musicians all know each other."

PCP has performed or recorded with folk masters like Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) and Dan Bern, pop rock group The Dandy Warhols and heavy metal band Pantera.

"We started collaborating with Ryan Sollee pretty early on. He'd put together The Builders and The Butchers and they got really popular in the Northwest," said Jenkins. "We wanted to do something huge and epic and different and Ryan was ready to work with us."

Sollee happens to be an Anchorage guy, a graduate of East High and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In Anchorage he formed the well-received rock band Born Losers before moving to Portland. With The Builders and The Butchers, he performed at UAA last November.

He will be back for the shows with PCP. But he won't be the only guest artist on stage.

"We'll be bringing the big show up with us, winds, horns, percussion, lots of cellos," Jenkins said.

It's the kind of blow-the-walls-out sound they've needed to play in outdoor parks, punk clubs, sports bars, rock band tours or half-time shows at NBA games.

Though the cellos are standard issue acoustic instruments played in a symphony orchestra, they are amplified to project over the loudspeakers of rock instruments and singers. The Audix company let them try a variety of microphones until the group found the ones that worked best. But cultivating the right touch caused some adjustment for the players, who have gone through classical training.

"We've all learned to play in a certain way that gets us into the electrical medium," Jenkins said. "It's been a learning curve."

But playing the cellos has proved easier than transporting them. For performances that the group can drive to, they can bring their own instruments. But since they must fly to Anchorage, they'll be playing borrowed local instruments.

The alternative is to buy a seat for each of the cellos. It's something every player dreads, Jenkins said.

"It's always dangerous and the airlines are never liable. It's pretty rough as a cellist."

Reach Mike Dunham at mdunham@adn.com or 257-4332.