With Potenza, in Goes Rock, Out Pops Be-Bop : Music: Guitarist, who plays in Huntington Beach tonight and tomorrow night, calls his particular kind of music <i> R & Be-bop.</i>

Guitarist Frank Potenza gives his music a name you don’t hear everyday.

He calls it R & Be-bop.

“My recent career and my four albums for TBA Records have been based on taking original tunes that are R&B-based;, or classics of that genre like (Marvin Gaye’s) ‘What’s Goin’ On?’ basically using that rhythmic feel over which I solo in my style, which comes out of be-bop,” the 41-year-old native of Providence, R.I., said in a recent interview.

“So my stuff kind of winds up sounding like R & B and rock meets be-bop, with a lot of other influences that I find interesting,” said Potenza, who is featured tonight and Saturday with bassist Luther Hughes’ trio at El Matador in Huntington Beach.

Potenza, whose most recent TBA album is “Express Delivery,” which features keyboardist Tim Heintz, says that the strongest of those influences is Latin music, which extends to Brazilian sounds.

“My interest goes way back, to my hometown,” said Potenza, who moved from Providence to Southern California in 1980, and now lives with his wife in Hawaiian Gardens, in north Long Beach.

“But when I arrived here, I really became involved,” he said. “There’s so much Latin music, both live and on the radio, in the Los Angeles area that you don’t have to try hard to find it.”

Potenza said that while the Latin vein hasn’t always been apparent in his music, particularly on his latest album, it is always revealed in his live dates.

Since he comes from a be-bop orientation, which is represented by such guitar influences as Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino, it’s natural that another major aspect of Potenza’s artistry is his fondness for straight-ahead playing, which is another way of saying “acoustic-based mainstream jazz” or “be-bop.”

Again, many of his listeners may not recognize this side of him, he said.

“I was playing straight-ahead before I came to California, and then the opportunity came up for me in the mid-’80s to make R & B-based records. . . . Those are what most people know me for, and perhaps (they) think I play that style to the exclusion of any other.”

Not true, he insisted.

“My book has a lot of straight-ahead tunes in it,” he said. “As far as stretching out and really getting into a tune, that’s where I feel the most comfortable.”

When he’s not working with his own group, or with another artist, such as reed man Buddy Collette, with whom he occasionally performs, Potenza seeks out solo or duo engagements. In the latter context, he’s been working with singer Sunny Wilkinson (they play Drake’s in Glendale on Oct. 26).

Playing with no support from another instrument, even a bass, puts Potenza in a very challenging position, but it’s one he welcomes.

“Standing up there and just playing, solo, that’s the hardest thing for a guitarist,” he said. “It’s the most naked setting I can imagine, with no one to rely on. When it works, you have all the glory. When it doesn’t, you have all the drag.”

When he’s not playing guitar or teaching--which he does privately and in the commercial music program at Long Beach City College--Potenza has a much less visible sideline: as an electric bassist.

“Now this may sound weird, but if I’m not the person calling the music and the one who gets to be a pig on the gig, then I’d rather play bass,” he said. “I find it more fun. And I feel that, as a sideman, I have more effect on the music.”

Nonetheless, guitar remains Potenza’s primary avenue of musical expression. He gravitated to the instrument through a cousin, James Gagliardi. “I was 12, He was six or seven years older. He played in a band in Providence and I thought he was the coolest guy in the world,” Potenza said. “I went over to his house one time and played his electric guitar and I thought, ‘This is the greatest thing you can do in life,’ and I have felt the same way since.”

Potenza’s first important teacher was Tony Evangelista, who introduced him to such jazz players such as George Benson. Then, while studying at the jazz-based Berklee College of Music in Boston, where Potenza took a degree in music education in 1972, his teacher was Mick Goodrick, known for his work with vibist Gary Burton and bassist Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra.

“He was the first teacher who talked about aesthetics, rather than pyrotechnics,” Potenza said. “He was more concerned with art than with mastery of the instrument, like imagining you were on the beach while playing a bossa nova. We had a great rapport.”

After Berklee, Potenza worked around Providence in rock, blues and jazz bands until he knew he had to leave. “I had done everything I had dreamed of there two or three times. So when I met my wife, who was living in California, I moved out here.”

As far as he’s concerned, Potenza’s musical life is on track. “I’d like to work more as a leader, make more records. I like that process. But I have little to complain about. Just trying to jump from this boat onto a bigger one.”

Guitarist Frank Potenza joins the Luther Hughes Trio at 9 and 11 p.m. tonight and Saturday at El Matador, 16903 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach. Admission: free. Information: (714) 846-5337.