Virtuosos Will Show Their Pluck : Music: An El Cajon ‘extravaganza’ features contemporary players who are creating a new language for the banjo.

One doesn’t expect to see the words banjo and extravaganza in the same sentence. The instrument conjures a soundtrack for mostly bucolic images--from dozy, back-porch plucking to riverboat-jazz strumming to the fleet-fingered breakdowns of a rural bluegrass jam. The second term connotes a glitzy entertainment spectacle of a type more likely to attract jaded urbanites.

In recent years, however, players such as Bela Fleck (who will play Humphrey’s in August), John Hickman, Tony Trischka and Tony Furtado have been creating a broader, more contemporary language for the banjo by borrowing from the jazz, pop, rock, classical and avant-garde lexicons. Those last three pluckmeisters--all of whom record for the Rounder Records label--promise to validate the title of a concert, “The Rounder Banjo Extravaganza,” they will perform tomorrow in El Cajon at El Amigo/Club Bostonia.

Although Hickman, Trischka and Furtado first drank from the same modern banjo font--the virtuosic bluegrass stylings of Earl Scruggs--they since have come to represent three stages of the instrument’s continuing transformation.

Hickman, who is in his late 40s, is the oldest, best-known and most tradition-bound of the three. He has played with the Stoney Mountain Boys and has performed in San Diego several times as a member of the famous bluegrass trio Berline, Crary and Hickman. Beginning in the early ‘70s, Trischka, now 43, used bluegrass as a starting point from which to blaze new trails for the banjo, mostly through the employment of complex, non-traditional chordings and improvisations.

Furtado, the “kid” of the trio at 24, spent his musical formative years listening to Fleck and Trischka. Although thoroughly schooled in bluegrass, his work is equally influenced by jazz and pop, and exemplifies how contemporary invention can spring from deep traditional roots.

In a call made earlier this week from a pay phone while en route from Portland, Ore., to Davis, Calif., Furtado discussed a career that began quite by accident, when, as an 11-year-old kid in Pleasanton, Calif., he had to build a musical instrument as one requirement of a school report.

“Up to that point, I hadn’t even listened to much music,” Furtado said. “My mom had offered to pay for lessons on piano or any other instrument, but I just wasn’t interested. So, for no real reason, I chose to make a banjo, and I became obsessed with the uniqueness of it. My parents bought me a better one for my 12th birthday, and, ever since, the banjo has been a major part of my life.”

Furtado and the banjo proved to be a good match. In 1987, he won the prestigious National Bluegrass Banjo Championship. But, as Furtado developed his skills, and especially as he began to chart out his own course on the instrument, he confronted the dilemma familiar to all musical innovators: paying homage to the instrument’s traditions while establishing his own voice. There were few available road maps.

“The banjo hasn’t been used to play very many types of music, so when I wanted to play a jazz tune, for example, I didn’t have many sources to draw upon in terms of the technical aspects of playing banjo in that style,” he said. “Other than (listening to) guys like Tony (Trischka), Bela Fleck and Pat Cloud, I had to figure things out on my own.”

Furtado draws a distinction, however, between the singularity of the banjo and the commonality that unifies all forms of music. On his first album, “Swamped,” he picked on several musical styles, from bluegrass to Latin-flavored music, from Celtic-influenced tunes to Charlie Parker be-bop. His current album, “Within Reach,” features a number of genre-defying originals and a gorgeous interpretation of the Beatles’ “I Will” that features Alison Krauss on vocals.

“Artistically, you can get inspiration from just about anyone playing any instrument,” Furtado explained. “For example, I’ve probably listened as much to Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley as to some of the better bluegrass musicians. You just find a way to relate the work of the major innovators to your own instrument. And, because the banjo has such unique characteristics and limitations, your interpretation of others’ work will come out completely different.”

While the critics seem in agreement that Furtado is a star on the rise, the musician sees a much longer road ahead in terms of artistic fulfillment.

“I’m a long ways from where I want to be,” he said. “One of my main goals is to tie all my ideas and influences together in my compositional style, and then to find a band that can stretch in the way that I like to stretch. But I still have a lot to learn, and I see myself taking another five or 10 years to get to the point where all the pieces come together.”

In the meantime, Furtado is having a great time touring with two of his idols, and he suggested that those who turn out for Sunday’s show will leave sharing his enthusiasm.

“The fun thing about the show is that you can hear the differences in our styles, but you can also tell that we take our cues from the banjo music of the ‘40s and ‘50s,” he said. “John has added new, very original ideas to playing bluegrass; Tony is a wild man, an innovator who keeps pushing the banjo envelope; and I represent the next generation--players who were influenced by Tony and Bela.”

On the current tour, Hickman, Trischka, and Furtado are joined by guitarist David Grier (who played on “Within Reach”) and mandolinist John Reishman. Furtado claimed that the show is pretty democratic in allowing all five of the musicians to display their wares.

“We usually start out the show playing together, then we showcase each banjo player individually, then each sideman, and finally we end the set all playing together again,” he said. “If you like banjo, you’ll love this show.”

“The Rounder Banjo Extravaganza,” featuring John Hickman, Tony Trischka, Tony Furtado, John Reishman and David Grier, will take place Sunday at El Amigo/Club Bostonia, 1340 Broadway, El Cajon. Tickets for the 7 p.m. concert are $10 and are available at the club or at all TicketMaster outlets (278-TIXS). For more information, call 593-6096.