JAZZ REVIEW : Keyboard Duel Plays to a Draw : Rob Mullins and Mark Massey’s exchange at El Matador Thursday night is more cooperative than combative, despite its billing.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  The sign out front of El Matador Thursday night promised “Dueling Pianos: Rob Mullins vs . Mark Massey.” But the spirit of the evening’s first set was more cooperative than combative as the two keyboardists pumped each other up in a program of beat-minded standards and an original each from Mullins and bassist Luther Hughes.

Not only did Massey and Mullins each support the other’s cause with well-established accompaniment, they even brought the same general approach to their improvisations. Both took advantage of the solid rhythmic backdrops stirred up by Hughes and drummer Dave Hooper to uncoil fleet, swirling lines interrupted infrequently for the occasional chordal accents. If you’re looking for a decision on this six-song battle, it has to be declared a draw.

Round 1: We should have guessed from the title, “Making Love” (written by Mullins), that this wouldn’t be much of a fight. Spacious synthesizer chords introduced a solid funk line and sensual melody. Massey, playing with resonant hurdy-gurdy tones, came out swinging with steamy lines and lush chordal play. Mullins followed with long, twisting statements, some seductive, some insidious, that he punctuated with well-placed chords.

Round 2, Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You,” began with some hesitancy until the group found the common ground of Hooper’s hard-hitting pace. Massey soloed in acoustic tones, dropping in “Surrey With the Fringe on Top” and the kind of calliope-like circus themes one expects to hear under the big top. Mullins played with exceptional speed and grace, dwelling here and there on a particular series of notes before sailing up the keyboard again. The two traded intense lines near the tune’s close, taking ideas from each other and turning them inside out.

The third round, a more deliberately paced “Georgia,” went to Mullins with his furious blues attack. But Massey came back strong on “All the Things You Are,” turning the pleasant ballad into a hard-rocking exercise that he decorated with the familiar “Flight of the Bumblebee” theme.

Hughes took his best solo of the evening on his own “Number One Son,” moving up on the neck of his instrument to pluck out assertive rhythmic and melodic variations. By the time the quartet closed out with Joe Zawinul’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” with Massey matching a bagful of R&B; tricks against Mullins’ barrage of notes, it was obvious that there was no clear winner.

The general jam session approach of the performance resulted in the infrequent rough spots--the weak keyboard duet that opened “All the Things You Are” was one example--but also in surprisingly tight inventive moments, such as the dynamic close of the same tune, which Massey injected with the familiar, three-note Count Basie theme. Hooper was a constant source of drive, playing hard to the beat, pacing the proceedings with persistent hi-hat cymbal claps. Hughes seemed particularly enthused.

Even if this was more a collaborative exercise than a fight to the finish, the pairing of the two keyboard heavyweights demands one thing: a rematch.