Rippingtons’ Sound Takes On an Exotic Flavor : Jazz: Leader Russ Freeman weaves African and Brazilian rhythms into group’s music.

Pop stars including David Byrne, Sting, Peter Gabriel and PaulSimon have tapped the rhythms of Africa, Brazil and other exotic places for fresh inspiration. This new world consciousness has also fired the most recent music of Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons.

Multi-instrumentalist Freeman, who writes all of the band’s material, leaned heavily on imported rhythms for last year’s “Welcome to the St. James Club.” Throbbing bass, drums and percussion wove a dense, rhythmic jungle over which Freeman’s Pat Metheny-ish melodies soared.

As a result of this new phase of growth, Freeman, 31, is writing and playing guitar (his main instrument) better than ever. He puts his band through its paces this Friday night at the Theater East in El Cajon, the final installment of the “Simply Jazz” series, a successful experiment with big-name light jazz in East County.

Freeman, who plays guitar and guitar synthesizer in concert and also contributes drums, bass, keyboards and assorted synthesized effects in the studio, is moving gracefully beyond his early roots: the Beatles and Nashville country music, jazz (especially 1970s George Benson) and rock-jazz hybrids such as Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan.

Last week, he was holed up in his Burbank studio/home, recording the Rippingtons’ new release, “Curves Ahead,” due in August. He said the nine-song project will further the rhythmic directions he and his band mates explored on “St. James.”

“There is certainly as much or more African influence, and as much or more rhythm, on our new album, for a couple of reasons,” Freeman said. “I wanted to experiment with more African rhythms because that’s the essence of where jazz came from. From that came other offshoots--Latin, and I was heavily influenced by travels to the Caribbean and the island of Aruba, off Venezuela. I was impressed by the musicality of the people, and it was hard not be struck by the infectious grooves.”

Infectious grooves have become an increasingly vital part of the Rippingtons’ music, and the transformation has been all for the good. Where earlier albums such as the 1986 “Moonlighting” contained pleasant music that went over well with FM radio stations but didn’t offer much in the way of raw emotion or musical challenges, “St James” pulses with rhythmic and creative life.

Freeman is well aware of his evolution as a musician, songwriter and arranger, but that doesn’t mean he thinks less of his earlier work, which began with his 1985 solo debut recording, “Nocturnal Playground.”

“I respond more to the musical contents than the production values,” said Freeman, who moved to Los Angeles from Nashville to take a chance on stardom in 1978 and spent the next seven years as a hot session guitarist. In other words, he still likes those early compositions, but would record them in different ways today.

For one thing, although synthesizers have always played prominent roles in Freeman’s music, he now uses them with more restraint.

“Synthesizers can sound cool, you can have the latest gadgets, but those sounds get dated,” Freeman said. “So I’m trying to stick to time-proven instruments that won’t ever sound dated, such as acoustic piano and guitar. As a result, I tend to write more solos for acoustic instruments than synthesizers.”

A guitar synthesizer gives Freeman a great deal of versatility, but he said he tries not to let electronics overshadow the music.

“When Mark (Portman) takes an acoustic piano solo, I might play strings behind him. Behind Jeff (Kashiwa, the band’s saxophonist), I’ll play a horn section, so it’ll sound fatter.

“I use the guitar synthesizer as a utility instrument, for lead lines, solos, support, whatever I need. It’s kind of like having a seventh member of the band.”

One of the labels attached to the band’s music is “contemporary jazz.” Freeman’s songs include space for improvisation, in the jazz tradition, but he said the jazz tag can be misleading.

“It’s really almost pop music,” he said. “That’s one thing that maybe sets the group apart from other contemporary jazz groups. They may focus more on the jazz inflection, we’re more like a pop group.”

Although the group doesn’t use vocals, the music leans heavily on memorable melodies penned by Freeman.

“It’s almost as if we were a vocal group without the vocals,” Freeman said.

Since the Rippingtons signed with GRP in 1986, Freeman has become a member of the label’s extended family of musicians. GRP label-mates David Benoit and Carl Anderson have both played on Rippingtons’ recordings, and Freeman is producing new albums for for Anderson and Nelson Rangell, also on GRP.

All in all, it’s been a successful 13 years since Freeman headed west to seek his fortune, studying film scoring at UCLA and arranging at Los Angeles Valley College.

His dad was an amateur guitarist who hung out with musicians and bought his son a guitar as soon as he showed an interest at age 10. Through his father, Freeman was exposed to a range of music, from guitarist Chet Atkins to classical and the Beatles.

The Rippingtons have always existed mainly as a vehicle for Freeman’s music, and the lineup of supporting players has evolved. For the current record project and live dates in San Diego and Scottsdale, Ariz., on April 28, longtime Rippingtons Steve Reid and Tony Morales remain on percussion and drums. Former Spyro Gyra bassist Kim Stone joined the Rippingtons last summer, and Kashiwa and Portman have been with the group for about two years.

Friday night’s shows at 7 and 10 will include only a song or two of new material, Freeman said. The rest will come from the band’s existing four albums.