Jazzman still drumming up aid for New Orleans.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

Perhaps the coolest thing about listening to "III," the new album by Stanton Moore, is realizing where the music was made: Preservation Hall in New Orleans.

If you've ever perused the haunts in the Big Easy's French Quarter, then surely you've stepped inside the historic jazz hall on Saint Peter Street - or at least tried to, depending on just how crowded it was on that particular day.

"I've always been intrigued by the room," says Moore by cellphone from Los Angeles, where he was helping his girlfriend move to New Orleans, his home and his birthplace. "I just thought it would be a great place to record a record,"

Moore made the album last February, less than five months after Hurricane Katrina struck the Crescent City and before the 250-year-old building reopened to the public April 28.

Moore, who brings his Stanton Moore Trio to the WOW Hall on Tuesday, is a "Nawlins" boy through and through. Much of his time since the devastating hurricane 15 months ago has been focused on helping his beloved hometown heal.

"I'm just trying to do as much as I can to keep awareness high," says Moore, who has not only performed in benefit concerts and started a workshop for young musicians in New Orleans, but also donated cymbals and other gear to musicians whose equipment was damaged by the storm.

"My house didn't flood, but my back wall got torn down," says Moore of his Algiers Point home, across from the French Quarter on the south side of the Mississippi River.

He was in Seattle on tour when Katrina hit. And although his house survived, the downtown building where he usually recorded was damaged extensively by the hurricane, making the use of Preservation Hall not only a rare treat, but a practical decision.

Hard work in the Big Easy

There can't be too many drummers or musicians, period, across the land who are involved in as many projects and endeavors as Moore.

"I grew up pretty much a workaholic," the 34-year-old says. "I just have a lot of different projects I like doing."

He recently added another with the creation of a nine-piece brass band, "The Midnight Disturbers."

Moore's played solo, with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with his avant-funk ensemble Garage a Trois, with his "steamroller funk" band Galactic and with his funky supergroup, MG5. He even joined heavy metal Grammy nominee Corrosion of Conformity on its "In the Arms of God" album, a gig that caused Rolling Stone magazine to say that Moore had earned "his John Bonham stripes."

That's fitting. Led Zeppelin's Great White Whale, who died in 1980, is one of Moore's three favorites of all time - along with two other late-greats: Elvin Jones and James Black. Plus, the most fascinating track on "III" is perhaps the mesmerizing, bluesy version of "When the Levee Breaks."

"Levee" is a song Zeppelin made famous. It was first recorded in 1929 by husband-and-wife duo Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie, and it's about the great Mississippi flood of 1927.

Moore, who believes one of his missions in this life is "the passing on of traditional New Orleans music and culture," also performs clinics, teaches master classes on drumming, writes for Modern Drummer magazine when he can find the time and has written an 80-page songbook: "Take It to the Street: A Study in New Orleans Street Beats and Second-Line Rhythms as Applied to Funk."

A mouthful of a title, for sure. But Moore definitely applies some funk to his drum rhythms in "III," in which he is joined by Bernard on guitar, Robert Walter on organ, Sherik on tenor sax and Mark Mullins on trombone.

Check out the funky beat, the constant yet smooth drum chatter and the bluesy organ on the opening track, "Poison Pushy." Roll with the rolling beat of "Big 'uns Get the Balling Rolling."

Dig the big band sound and the "cha-cha-cha" of Moore's drums on "Chilcock." And relish not only the title, but the great rhythmic get-up-and-move beat of "(Don't Be Comin' With No) Weak Sauce."

The Trio's West Coast tour kicked off Wednesday in San Diego and hits Los Angeles, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe before its Tuesday appearance in Eugene. The group appears at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge on Dec. 20 before gigs in Seattle, Bellingham, Wash., and Vancouver, B.C.

The trio plays B.B. King's in New York City on Dec. 23.

CONCERT PREVIEW Stanton Moore Trio What: New Orleans jazz-funk drummer Stanton Moore, with Will Bernard on guitar and Brian Coogan on organ When: 9 p.m. Tuesday Where: WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave. Tickets: $15 in advance and at the door

Reach Mark Baker at 338-2374 or [e-mail].