Joey Baron, long seen as the quintessential drummer for the hip New York avant set, refuses to be typecast.

"I just consider myself a musician and try to apply myself to whatever situation I'm in," Baron said. "Whether it's playing something for Philip Glass, doing an improv with John Zorn, or my own groups, my goal is to make music, and I'm not really concerned with calling it new or jazz or bebop or funk. I'm using everything I've ever experienced. I don't throw anything away."

Best known for his work with saxophonist Zorn's Masada and guitarist Bill Frisell, Baron has long been a mainstay at cutting-edge Manhattan music spots such as the Knitting Factory and Tonic. While his new band, Killer Joey, might seem as if it fits in perfectly with the aggressive, crunching "Downtown" aesthetic, Baron is intent on exploring a different side of his musical persona.

Featuring Sex Mob bassist Tony Scherr and guitarists Adam Levy and Steve Cardenas, the band's sound is full of subtle grooves and wide-open sonic vistas. With the guitarists constantly switching between lead and rhythmic support, Killer Joey erases distinctions between the front line and rhythm section.

But the huge array of textures Baron coaxes out of his trap set is what gives his compositions form. The band's first CD, Killer Joey, a self-produced effort recorded in Scherr's living room, is available only at the band's gigs, though plans are in the works to record another session for wider distribution. It features the tune "Wide Load" (RealAudio excerpt).

Compositions Stand Out

"As a composer, I'm really influenced by a whole lot of people," Baron said. "I love the way Burt Bacharach can take a very simple sequence of notes and make beautiful melodies. ... To me, the way Ray Charles sings, it's like composition, the way he sets up a phrase and the way he resolves a phrase. I think about those things when I'm writing something, and when I play I think about telling a story. The stuff that's really touched me is the emotional things, like folk music and blues, hymns from the church and synagogue — there's something very perfect about the shape of them compositionally."

Baron sees the group as an extension of his two previous bands. His primal, inventive, saxophone-trombone-drums trio Barondown was noted for its manic energy and zany approach best summed up by the title of its 1991 JMT album, Tongue in Groove. More recently, he's been working with an all-star quartet, Down Home, a group with such a soulful, simmering sound that it caught a number of critics off guard.

Featuring bass legend Ron Carter, powerhouse alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe and Frisell, Down Home recorded two bluesy albums for Intuition that feature some of the leanest, funkiest grooves around.

"A lot of people in the press were expecting Down Home to play Downtown music," Baron said. "That was the furthest thing from my intentions, though the stuff I'm doing now really flows out of what I was doing with Barondown. The reason it might not sound like that is Barondown's instrumentation didn't allow for harmony to be presented in a lush manner. It left a lot for the ear to imagine."

Baron's next CD with the Down Home Band, We'll Soon Find Out, featuring the song "Slow Charleston" (RealAudio excerpt), will come out in late August.

The problem with trying to peg Baron, 44, to any jazz camp is that he's always sought out the widest variety of musical experiences. Born in Virginia, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-'70s with the dream of accompanying singer Carmen McRae.

"She did more with what she had than anyone else I'd ever heard next to Billie Holiday," Baron said. "She was just interested in telling the story."

By the time he accomplished his goal, spending a number of years on the road with the late singer, he had paid dues with everyone from blues great Big Joe Turner and Broadway belter Lainie Kazan to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and jazz luminaries such as pianist Hampton Hawes, trumpeters Blue Mitchell, Chet Baker and Conte Candoli, saxophonists Teddy Edwards and Art Pepper and multi-instrumentalist Victor Feldman.

Versatile Musician

Baron's wide-open approach to music is what attracted Levy to Killer Joey. A highly versatile musician (and former associate editor of Guitar Player magazine), Levy describes the main challenge of playing in Killer Joey as coming up with contrasting ideas and sounds when following Cardenas' solos.

Levy also appreciates Baron's evolving interest in melodic development and emotionally engaged themes.

"When I heard that Down Home record, I actually related more to that than some of the other things he'd been doing with the Barondown group, which is all kind of in fifth gear," Levy said. "I know there's a big part of his audience that comes to see that level of intensity at all times. But now that he's a leader, he's playing the music that he wants to hear. Five years ago I was soaking in that Downtown sound, and now what's interesting to me is more soul music, playing beautiful music with the same intensity."