MUSIC : Bountiful Career : Studio musician and acclaimed percussionist Alex Acuna wants his band, the Unknowns, to take chances when it performs.

With a soft smile on his face, Alex Acuna sat on a piano bench in a studio behind the Van Nuys home he shares with his wife, Diana, and their two children and reflected on the great fortune he’s received from his life in music.

“I have done well, and it feels good,” said Acuna, 48, who was born into extreme poverty in the tiny Peruvian coastal town of Pativilca, and became one of the music world’s most acclaimed percussionists and drummers.

“I know what it is like not to have shoes, clothing, have nothing to eat for a day. But since I was a kid, I have had incredible hope. I had already hit bottom,” he said. “I can only go up.”

A working professional since age 12, Acuna, who appears Monday and Tuesday at Le Cafe, did his first major job at 20 with Cuban trumpet great Perez Prado. Since, he has had a bountiful career--mostly as a studio musician in all styles, although also as a performer. He has played and/or recorded with Elvis Presley, U2, Weather Report, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Wayne Shorter--the list goes on almost ad infinitum.

A compact man with cocoa-colored skin and large brown eyes, he pointed to an overflowing box of cassette tapes and CDs and said with a tinge of sadness: “People send me recordings I have played on, and I don’t even have time to open them.”

Acuna said there have been so many assignments--”I work five days a week most of the time”--that he can’t recall what U2 album he made, or the names of many of the motion picture soundtracks on which he’s played.

But he recalled that when he worked with Presley in Las Vegas in 1974, the rock idol used to tease him. “He’d say I looked like the Indian on the old buffalo head nickel,” he said with a laugh.

He added that performing with Weather Report--first as a percussionist and then as the band’s drummer--was frightening at first. “What is this ?” he said, re-creating his shock at both the difficulty and the freedom that the premier jazz/fusion band’s music presented. “It was like my first trip to New York in 1964, when I looked at the skyscrapers and it was like being on Mars.”

Acuna said he’s fulfilled by the variety of work he does as a free-lance studio musician, which he’s pursued since moving to Los Angeles in the late ‘70s. But he said he is most engaged when the music is danceable, which often means Latin American or Brazilian sounds. “Jazz has that too. The first time I heard John Coltrane, I danced.”

Contentment at the studios--where recent projects have included a new Roy Orbison album, placing the late singer’s vocal tracks over new instrumental accompaniments--doesn’t preclude a drive to play in public, Acuna said. “A true musician never quits playing live. It’s a different experience. I don’t care how tired I am; if there’s a gig to play, I’ll do it.”

Acuna’s contemporary jazz-world music group, which he calls the Unknowns and features keyboardist Otmaro Ruiz, reed man Pedro Eustache and guitarist Ramon Stagnaro, spotlights Latino musicians whom the leader hopes will get the breaks he has received. “I see these musicians with so much talent that I want them to play with me so they can become known,”

The 3-year-old ensemble, which can be heard on its JVC release, “Thinking of You,” is one of the most cohesive bands to play Le Cafe, said the room’s owner, Dale Jaffe. “There’s a group feeling that’s almost unparalleled. They’re very committed to what they do, and it shows.”

One of the main reasons the band succeeds musically, Acuna said, is that he insists that the members take chances when they perform. “You can’t worry if you’re going to make a mistake,” he said. “Don’t think. Just let the spirit go and play, blow and take chances.”

Where and When Who: Alex Acuna and the Unknowns. Location: The Room Upstairs at Le Cafe, 14633 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Hours: 8:30 and 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Price: $10 cover; two-drink minimum. Call: (818) 986-2662.