The idea struck pianist Cyrus Chestnut while helping a colleague record a version of "Love Me Tender": Why not record an entire album of Elvis Presley songs?

Chestnut, who will perform with his trio tonight at the Mount Gretna Playhouse, knew the project had the potential to turn into a disaster.

"It was challenging," the Baltimore native said during a telephone interview. "I couldn't make the arrangements so spacey that nobody knew what they were about, but also it couldn't be so simple that it sounded just like covers. I'd get laughed right off the planet."

Chestnut, 45, first did his homework, researching Presley's career and combing through his catalog.

"There was common ground," the pianist said. "His title is the King of Rock 'n' Roll but I came to realize that he loved singing gospel music as well."

After selecting a bunch of songs he believed might be suitable for instrumental jazz treatments, the pianist first wrote arrangements and then hit the road to try them out at his concerts.

He settled on 10 diverse songs made famous by Presley, including "Hound Dog," "Love Me Tender," "Suspicious Minds," "In the Ghetto" and "How Great Thou Art." And he included one original, the appropriately titled "Graceland."

The album, "Cyrus Plays Elvis" (2007) proves again just how malleable jazz is as a musical form. On some of the songs, like "Can't Help Falling in Love," Chestnut hews closely to Presley's original, but on others, like "Heartbreak Hotel," Chestnut lets his musical imagination run free.

The pianist said fans can expect to hear some Presley tunes at tonight's concert but will also hear a taste of his next project.

Chestnut, a man of faith who grew up listening to gospel music, has dubbed his next project "sanctified swing."

He said plans call for a live recording of his own arrangements of various spirituals and hymns, along with some originals. Chestnut hopes to have the album completed within the next few months.

Chestnut's father taught him to play piano and his mother let him listen to her record collection, which included albums by Jackie Wilson, Little Richard and King Curtis.

"Then I started searching the radio station and I found this interesting music called jazz and we've been together ever since," he said.

Chestnut eventually enrolled at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with a degree in jazz composition and arranging.

However, he said his real education began when he worked as a sideman for such jazz luminaries as Betty Carter, Terence Blanchard and Jon Hendricks.

"I wasn't in a real hurry to become a frontman because there was still a lot of ground to be covered as a sideman," he said.

He did finally step out in 1992 when he released his first solo album, "Nut." He's never looked back.

"I am currently enrolled in the University of the Streets, the University of Everyday Living," he said. "As you live life, the music always is a part of it."

Cyrus Chestnut and Neenna Freelon, today, 8 p.m., Mt. Gretna Playhouse, $20-$39, presented by Gretna Music, 361-1508.

E-mail: jferguson@lnpnews.com