ROOTS IN ROCK : DRESHER’S BACK BEAT MINIMALISM

In the ultra-serious, ultra-chic world of contemporary music, audiences simply don’t go off dancing in the aisles. Music by the likes of Terry Riley and Philip Glass tends to sedate rather than excite.

But at concerts by Paul Dresher, one of the members of the new minimalist generation (he prefers the term pre-maximalist ), many listeners have been inspired to shake their booties.

“It’s certainly not designed to be dance music,” the Bay Area musician commented during a recent phone conversation. “But it is very physical.”

There’s a simple explanation for such behavior, says Dresher, who hosts an evening of his music at the Japan America Theatre on Thursday (continuing the Explorations series and opening the CalArts Contemporary Music Festival). Though firmly entrenched in new music, the 34-year-old guitarist-keyboardist traces his roots to rock ‘n’ roll.

“When I was growing up in Pacific Palisades,” Dresher recalls, “the electric guitar was the instrument of the time. So my music evolved through the guitar. I was in a rock band for a while.”

So when did the heart of rock ‘n’ roll stop beating in Dresher? “My first contact with contemporary music was in 1973 at Mills College (in Oakland),” he says. “I had heard Terry Riley was there.”

But the move away from rock had actually begun earlier: “Everybody just wanted to boogie. I was not playing boogie-woogie.”

So he began to study with Riley (“ ‘Hang out’ is more like it”), and eventually received music degrees at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego.

Remnants of those early rock days are still noticeable in “Destiny,” one of the works on the Thursday agenda. “The piece has allusions to rock ‘n’ roll--mainly because of the way I use the drummer (Gene Reffkin),” he points out. “The surface effects are inspired by rock, but the structure of the music is quite different.”

Indeed, structure is a very important element in Dresher’s music. Though the casual listener may prefer to be swept along in the current of his tape-looped excursions, a closer listen will reveal traditional forms favored by such past non-minimalists as Bach and Beethoven. Sound old-fashioned?

“Isn’t it peculiar that we all try to avoid the word traditional ?” Dresher replies. “I feel that the forms of the past have never really left (Western) music. Composers who turn their backs on those forms don’t usually succeed.

“That doesn’t mean I’m limited by tradition--I just make a core use of it.”

The Thursday event offers a fair sampling of the composer’s diverse styles (“It’s an ideal program for me,” he says). The first half consists of three works performed by Dresher, Reffkin, vocalist Rinde Eckert and sound engineer Jay Cloidt. In addition to “Destiny,” the agenda lists “Dark Blue Circumstance” (a Dresher solo) and “Was Are/Will Be” (based on motifs used in “are are,” part of a theater piece titled the “How” trilogy).

Two of Dresher’s forays into chamber music occupy the second half: Rand Steiger leads the CalArts 20th Century Players in “Channels Passing” and the Kronos Quartet plays “Casa Vecchia,” a work written for it.

Dresher feels close kinship with the string quartet: “It’s like jazz or rock ‘n’ roll. There’s an ensemble rhythm. You get the sense that these people are playing together. “

But he readily admits that his future is in the volatile, ever-changing world of theater, in the form of such elaborate works as the “How” trilogy (the final segment, “Seehear,” will be staged at UCLA in July, Dresher says). “There’s more freedom in working with visual elements. You can create interesting counterpoints.”

And riotous reactions?

“In any contemporary music, there’s an element of risk,” Dresher says. “That I adore.”