Mr. Roger’s Funky Neighborhood

Roger Troutman is sitting in his home studio being interviewed on the phone, a bevy of musical toys at his disposal. Upon being asked where he’s from, the answer comes punching over the line several times in various electronically enhanced tones: “DAytonOHIoDaYtOnOhIodayTONOHIo!”

“What are you doing, Roger?” Troutman starts singing the blues. “I’m a magic man, yeah, yeah, yeah,” he growls. At one point Troutman speaks for a couple minutes exclusively in a Donald Duck-like voice.

The leader of Zapp & Roger (or Roger & Zapp, depending on which album you’re holding) is one fun guy. Outwardly, he doesn’t take himself--or much of anything else, for that matter--with a great degree of seriousness.

But dig a little deeper and you’ll see that the funk singer, songwriter, musician and producer, who performs Saturday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, does indeed have more on his mind than the next goof he can play on someone’s head. It’s just that the goofs surface so readily.

“The Ohio Players! That’s what gave all of us in the area the incentive to play,” Troutman said of the ‘70s funk outfit best known for “Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster.” “Babyface came from this area; a lot of people came from this area. The O’Jays, Slave. They were here because the Ohio Players were here.

“When they were famous, [the Players] never went to L.A. or New York; they stayed right here in Dayton. I can remember seeing them drive down the street in those new cars, seeing them living in those big houses,” he said. “You’d see them on ‘American Bandstand’ on a Saturday, and then on Monday afternoon you’d see them on the street. That was a big inspiration.”

Troutman, 45, is a 17-year veteran of the funk scene. The group’s 1980 debut album, “Zapp,” yielded the R&B; hit “More Bounce to the Ounce Pt. 1” and launched a career.

Arguably the genre’s most important--certainly its most prolific--act in the post P-Funk era, Zapp was and is composed of Troutman and his brothers Lester, Terry and Larry, plus whoever happens to be hanging around the studio when the red light is on.

That can range from vocalist Shirley Murdoch to gospel’s great Mighty Clouds of Joy. It’s this unpredictable element that makes Roger/Zapp albums so much fun--everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into Troutman’s virile, eminently danceable mixes.

Layer upon layer of intoxicating sounds include untold numbers of human voices--many fed through a vocorder--bubbling over chicken-pickin’ guitars, droning synths, popping bass and complex, churning polyrhythms.

“Three things really helped develop my so-called style,” Troutman said. “The most important thing was that, before we had any hit records, we performed live literally every night of the week, and we had to keep people dancing all night long.

“I really got a feel for what would make people get up and move, and right at the height of that is when I went into the studio for the first time. First time in the studio, first record and first hit. Oh man, that was just like a dream come true!

“And Darth Vader was very popular around this time, and his voice had a very robot-like sound to it. I also had listened to a lot of James Brown. What can I say? You put those three things together, and . . . .”

What you get is Zapp/Roger hits such as “Doo Wa Ditty (Blow That Thing),” “Do It Roger,” “Heartbreaker,” “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “Computer Love.” Some made it up the pop chart; others were hits on the R&B; chart.

Troutman is revered in the black community by the current generation of rappers who grew up listening to his music, and this has manifested itself in a side career as a producer. Among those Troutman has worked with behind the board are H-Town, Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur, who was shot to death last year.

“That was devastating, devastating,” Troutman said. “When he got shot, I knew it was coming, but I didn’t think those gunshot wounds would take his life. Devastating. What a great loss. He was so creative in the studio; he could just walk in and rhyme a song on anything. He was great artist, very lyrical, like a poet.”

Unlike many boomer-vintage black artists who have been nearly retired by the tsunami of hip-hop’s popularity, Troutman doesn’t resent the new sound. He embraces it and uses the influence of it in his own music.

“These are artists trying to express themselves just as a trumpeter or a violinist or a singer,” he said. “They’re doing incredible things with rhythms and rhymes and words. It’s gonna be around for a long time because it’s just as innovative as bebop, the Beatles era or any other era. It’s a great new medium of music. It works, and it has stood the test of time.”

Troutman is wise enough to look ahead and back as an artist. While he respects and cultivates the innovations made by the younger generation, it is his giant R&B; predecessors whom he most aspires to be like.

“I want to do my immediate tomorrows so that the big tomorrow will have me like Ray Charles is today,” Troutman said. “No so much having hit records but being an icon, having a solid, dependable career.

“Like B.B. King--he didn’t have a hit record, and he kept going. Tina Turner didn’t have a hit record, and she kept going. Marvin Gaye didn’t have a hit record, and he kept going. Then out of the blue: Blam! ‘The Thrill Is Gone!’ Blam! ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’ Blam! ‘Sexual Healing!’ I’d like to wind up that way.”

* Who: Roger & Zapp.

* When: 8 p.m. Saturday; Esoteric and Disco Stranger open.

* Where: Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to Harbor Boulevard; go north and take the third right, Lake Center Drive. The theater is on the left.

* Wherewithal: $18.50-$20.50.

* Where to call: (714) 957-0600.