Wherever Blues Man Goes, He’s Chicago-Bound : Rock: Jimmy Rogers carries on the Muddy Waters sound. He’s at the Heritage Brewing Co.

Buzzing guitars and soaring harps. Pounding pianos and jumping rhythm sections. For many aficionados, the raw, primal sound of classic Chicago blues is the apex of the genre.

And the best Chicago blues band of all, it generally is acknowledged, was Muddy Waters’, who developed and defined the style from the late ‘40s to mid-’50s. Waters, pianist Otis Spann, bassist Willie Dixon and harpist Little Walter all have passed away, leaving guitarist Jimmy Rogers--who will play tonight at the Heritage Brewing Co. in Dana Point--to carry on the tradition.

“We all knew at the time that we were good, because we’d worked together so long at the Chicago blues thing,” Rogers, 67, said during a recent phone interview from Phoenix. “We got together and built it up from the ground.”

The only Chicago blues man whose status approached Waters’ was the huge, fierce-throated Howlin’ Wolf, whose rivalry with Waters is the stuff of music legend.

“Yeah, Wolf and Muddy had a thing together at that time, you know,” Rogers recalled. “Wolf had a real good band too, but we were playing in different styles. We played a jazzy blues sound, Wolf played straight blues.”

The Waters group served as a sort of house band for Chess Records in the ‘50s, backing up a number of artists--including Rogers and Little Walter on their own recordings. Rogers’ releases were the less successful commercially, but today they rate with the finest and most-imitated of the era. “Walking By Myself,” “Sloppy Drunk,” “You’re the One,” “Chicago Bound,” “Back Door Friend”--Rogers’ best songs all feature the musical elements that cemented Waters’ reputation.

Whoever they were backing, the sympathetic guitar interplay between Waters and Rogers wove a tonal web so tight that at times it was difficult to tell which guitarist was playing which part.

“I would take the bottom sound, Muddy would take the lead and we’d switch it from one to the other. The only difference was Muddy would throw that slide in.”

Rogers’ style was a seamless synthesis of old and new: He employed the full chords and finger-picking technique of the traditional Mississippi Delta musicians and added slicker, jazzy runs he loved from the jump blues bands of Louis Jordan and Tiny Grimes. Rogers’ playing, which sounded effortless, was always tasteful, never flashy.

“I’m a team player. These younger boys out there do a lot of screaming, and that’s OK, but for me, I like a team with me that doesn’t interfere with my sound.”

That relaxed, accommodating nature comes through in his music (his easy, drawling vocals have more in common with Jimmy Reed’s than with the macho, authoritative aura created by Waters’ muscular singing) but also perhaps contributed to his relative lack of renown outside hard-core blues circles.

Although Rogers said he never resented his cohorts for their higher profiles, he seems genuinely to appreciate fans who recognize his contributions to the blues.

“I never minded not getting any publicity. I had other things going for me besides playing, stuff on the side, and I didn’t have so much time for music as they all did. Muddy, Walter and Wolf, that’s all they would do. I was busy raising kids, having a family. But once I got my own unit and started playing more, people pay more attention now. People used to just look for me up on the stage with Muddy, and that didn’t bother me, but now they know who I am for my own band.”

An album of his new recordings was released in 1990 on the Antone’s label out of Austin. “Ludella” features reworkings of his classic recordings and a batch of new songs with backing by such luminaries as pianist Pinetop Perkins and Fabulous Thunderbirds harpist Kim Wilson, and it shows that very little about Rogers’ style has changed since the old days. Indeed, it sounds like a Chess release from 1955; the improved sound quality is the only thing date-stamping it as modern.

In support of the album, Rogers has been logging many a month on the road with a band that includes his son, guitarist Jimmy Rogers Jr. It’s “a good, solid group,” he said. “It’s real nice to work with. We don’t back up, we play! I still favor the classic Chicago sound. All that rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues is all right, but Chicago is where I always come back home.”

* Jimmy Rogers plays tonight at 9:30 at the Heritage Brewing Co., 24921 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. $5. (714) 240--2060.