For about a half-century Herbie Mann has been at the forefront of defining a tradition for jazz flute -- a tradition that barely existed before him. Mann is the guest on this week's Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center, and he joins Dr. Taylor and his trio in a special performance at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara, Calif. Dr. Taylor tells the audience that Mann "took many jazz fans into a different place" and became, perhaps, the "most popular" of jazz flute players by emphasizing melody and Latin rhythms and by mining popular and Latin music for material.

Serendipity brought Herbie Mann and his instrument, the flute, together nearly 50 years ago. Beginning at 6 years old, Mann worked his way through drums, clarinet and tenor saxophone. Early on, he focused on playing with records and on ear training because he found lessons and scales "really boring." Mann initially was introduced to the flute because his music teacher advised him to learn the instrument so that he could play mambos and cha-chas. After getting out of the service, Mann was playing tenor saxophone around New York when a friend recommended him for singer Carmen McRae's first recording as someone who played jazz flute. "He says, do you? I said, I do now," Mann recalled to laughter from the audience.

Early in the program the flutist joins the trio on George Gershwin's "Summertime" to showcase what Dr. Taylor calls Mann's "Latinesque approach." Mann attributes part of his interest in Latin rhythms to the lack of a jazz flute tradition. With no jazz flute records to listen to and learn from, Mann says he listened to New York's Latin bands in which flute players were often soloists. Famed jazz disc-jockey Symphony Sid also helped in that regard when he recommended that Mann play with a conga drum.

Mann followed the suggestion and then started exploring other musics and continuing to bring them - and audiences on the fringe of jazz - into the music. Dr. Taylor mentions that Mann's manager at the time, Monte Kay, helped the flutist's musical exploration when he included Mann in an all-star ensemble Kay took to Brazil. There, Mann says, he learned that Brazilian music employed "incredible melodies." The melodies and harmonies, laid over Brazilian rhythms, made the tunes logical to a jazz player, Mann says. "Brazil saved me."

During the usual segment in which Dr. Taylor and his guest respond to questions from the audience, one questioner, a local jazz disk jockey who has followed Mann's career, notes that the flutist is always changing and asks: "What's next?" Mann replies that he has begun exploring his family roots in Eastern Europe. "I started writing music that I thought felt like Romania and Russia and Hungary." Recently, he visited Budapest and did some recording with a Hungarian quartet. Mann plans to return to Hungary to record an entire record with Hungarian musicians. "There's incredible players over there," he says.

These days Mann is joined on stage by his son, a drummer and a mandolinist. "It's a great double," Mann jokes. "You should see it on stage." Mann's continued growth has taken on a new cast in recent years, Dr. Taylor notes, with the creation of Herbie Mann's Prostate Cancer Awareness Music Foundation. Diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer three yeas ago, Mann now is officially in remission. During treatment Mann decided that he "needed to change the focus from negative to positive." Wherever he plays, Mann addresses the men in his audience about getting tested annually after the age of 40.

Tunes performed by Mann with the trio -- Dr. Taylor on piano, Winard Harper on drums and Chip Jackson on bass - include "Quiet Nights," "St. Thomas" and, closing the show, "Caravan."