SOUNDS AROUND TOWN : Mixed Bag : Regulars the Jazzheads mix up their repertoire to keep everybody happy, themselves included.

Rumor has it that Ventura County is a barren wasteland when it comes to live jazz. Don’t mention that rumor around the Hungry Hunter in Thousand Oaks.

On any Tuesday night, you head past the giant elk’s head on the restaurant wall, down the stairs and into the intimate bar. (Jazz clubs fare best in basement conditions.) There amid the dark wood beams and stone fireplace, you hear the sound of jazz and smart-aleck humor courtesy of the Jazzheads.

On a recent Tuesday, the Jazzheads delivered a mixed bag of jazz and funk-jazz tunes to an appreciative full house. They dished out agreeably groove-oriented tunes by David Sanborn and Tom Scott’s “Tomcat”--”a trashy, funky tune, but we’re going to do it anyway,” quipped saxophonist Bryan McCann, who likes to pepper the set with joking references to the music.

“These are tunes you might hear on a long elevator ride,” McCann added later.

But it’s doubtful that on any elevator ride, you’d ever hear a swinging version of the theme from “The Flintstones” segued into Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo.” That’s the Jazzheads’ paradox--mixing up the repertoire to keep everyone happy, themselves included.

The rhythm section, made up of drummer Joe Dougherty and bassist Bob Mair, attends to the rhythms solidly, while also taking a few detours into uncharted terrain. Guitarist Brad Rabuchin is the maverick out front, liable to slip strange scales and dissonances into his otherwise fluid jazz style. Or he might quote the riff from the Cream song “Sunshine of Your Love” when you least expect it.

McCann alternates between saxophone and the EWI (electronic wind instrument), a wind-driven synthesizer device that uses sampling technology to bring the sounds of a muted trumpet, piano and vibes to his fingertips and expands the band’s available sound bank.

“We work that line where enterprise and art meet,” said McCann, relaxing next to Rabuchin after a set. “I represent the enterprising high bourgeois, whereas Brad is from the avant garde. He keeps me honest.”

Besides being a good sax player, especially on the more R & B-flavored material, McCann has the gift of wise-guy emcee patter. He cheekily advised the patrons to consume “large glasses of premium liquor” and slipped easily into an oft-repeated line about the Jazzheads’ gig being “absolutely free and therefore . . . your best entertainment value ,” concluding in a cheesy, reverberant radio tone.

You also find this band mantra on the official Jazzheads Frisbee. Contrary to the tradition of thrown-together jazz jam groups, the Jazzheads also have an official logo--a kind of neo-primitive effect--and T-shirts. Rabuchin handed me a Jazzheads Info Card, which offers information on the latest “Gigs, Products and Services.” “What kinds of services?” “You know. Room additions, that kind of thing.”

There is also the infamous Tune Menu, laid out in categories of Funk, Latin, Out, Ballads and Jazz. A few of the more complex numbers are marked with the footnote “Safety Equipment Required.”

The band began in 1983, when McCann was hosting jam sessions every Wednesday night at Instrumental Music, the Thousand Oaks music store he runs. Soon, McCann and a band of regulars were playing every Sunday night at the Iron Horse in Westlake. Until it closed.

Five years ago, the Jazzheads moved over to their current Tuesday night thing at the Hungry Hunter. At that point, Rabuchin filled the guitar role previously belonging to Darol Caraco (with whom McCann now plays at the Bombay on Sundays). And since the Hungry Hunter was a smaller place with no dance floor, McCann said, “we could get a little more experimental and straight-ahead jazz-oriented.”

While McCann maintains a “day job,” the other players, all from Los Angeles, work as free-lance musicians. Mair plays in the avant-garde band Submedia, which released its debut album on the Nine Winds label this year. Rabuchin plays in a variety of projects, including bassist for a blues band. Dougherty’s “regular” job is keeping time with Roger Miller and the Grassroots.

The flexibility of these players is what keeps the Jazzheads lively, McCann said.

“If you’re going to get people to come out, you’re going to have to offer them entertainment,” he said. “It is not our intention to render songs exactly as they are on albums. . . . People come out to see us because the music is good and there’s an aspect of unpredictability.”

Back at the Hungry Hunter on that recent Tuesday, the band brought a long set to a close with one of its clever Trojan Horse-type medleys, luring in the unsuspecting customer with a popular warhorse and then easing into a die-hard jazz tune. In this case, the musicians began with the old Crusaders’ tune “Put It Where You Want It,” as funkily lovable as an old shoe, and then, after a quick chorus of “Happy Birthday,” slid into the chromatic maze of Thelonious Monk’s “Well, You Needn’t.”

The patrons, caught up in the spirit of the night, don’t know what hit them.

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Jazzheads appear at the Hungry Hunter in Thousand Oaks, 487 N. Moorpark Road, on Tuesday nights. No cover. For information, call 497-3925.