On first blush, drummer Stanton Moore's funky grooves seem molded by his New Orleans upbringing, steeped in the roots music of Professor Longhair, Doctor John and the Meters.

But Moore also draws on a source not often associated with the cultural wealth of the Big Easy: late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

"And more and more as I go on," Moore said recently of Bonham's influence.

"I started playing to Led Zeppelin records and stuff before I even started checking out the Meters," he added.

Moore, 35, is best known as a charter member of Galactic, the steamroller funk band from New Orleans. But almost since the band formed in the early 1990s, Moore wasted no time expanding his résumé, taking his big sound to countless band projects and other artists, and quickly earning kudos from the jazz media for his "nouveau second-line" and "jazz-meets-Bonham" drumming.

"I'm glad that they coined that little quote," Moore said recently from Cleveland, where he was touring with Galactic. "I don't refute that at all."

Moore, who leads a trio Thursday at SOhO in Santa Barbara, said he consciously morphs rootsy New Orleans grooves with Bonham's booming hard rock style.

"I'm always trying to come up with my own sound, but I'm drawing on a lot of jazz ideas and trying to play with a large sound and very open feel," he explained.

Besides, he added, New Orleans' ubiquitous second-line rhythms — the joyous rear guard of a funeral parade — and Zeppelin's hard rock are not mutually exclusive.

As Moore sees it, Bonham and Meters drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste derived their ideas from the same well of inspiration: Clyde Stubblefield, who laid down one of history's most revered drum beats, James Brown's 1967 hit "Cold Sweat."

"So when I'm playing the heavy stuff, I'm trying to approach it like some kind of bastard child of Bonham and Zigaboo," Moore said, laughing.

Bonham's sound looms large on Moore's last two Telarc solo records,

@TO 1-Text Ragged Right no indent:2006's "III" and his latest effort, "Emphasis (on parenthesis)," released last month.

Both feature Moore's massive drum sound, redolent of Bonham but rife with the funk beats that waft off every street corner of New Orleans. ("III" features a funereal, dirge-like rendition of Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks.")

"Emphasis" is Moore's fourth outing as a leader, but the second using the same core ensemble — guitarist Will Bernard and organist Robert Walter. On "III," the trio took a stripped-down approach, recording live in the studio and augmented on a few songs by saxophonist Skerik and trombonist Mark Mullins.

On "Emphasis," Moore kept the session to the trio. Some tunes, such as "(Thanks!) Again," percolate with the funky syncopation that characterized much of "III." Others, such as "(Proper) Gander" and "(Who Ate the) Layer Cake," swagger with an unabashed Zeppelin-like rock groove.

"Emphasis" also stretches sonically beyond "III," with Walter adding piano, toy piano and clavinet to his keyboard arsenal, while Bernard employs a variety of guitars.

"Emphasis" also uses digital experiments, like looping — "(I Have) Super Strength" — where Moore cherry-picked the fruits of improvisations for a digitally crafted final cut.

"I think the band has developed, and I'm digging on the things we've come up with," Moore said.

Such digital alchemy is a long way from Moore's introduction to music: New Orleans parade bands when he was 8 months old.

Marching bands — whether second-line funeral or high school bands — are a cultural touchstone of the Big Easy. And those sounds lured Moore to a life behind the drums.

"To me, that was the most exciting thing about the parades," Moore said. "You could hear the drums coming down the street, so people would start to get excited by that, and I would get excited by that. That really made an impression on me, seeing how people reacted to that. It really made me jump up and down."

Moore graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in 1994 with a major in music and a minor in business. Pressed by his parents to have something to fall back on, Moore also reasoned that business studies would give him a leg up on unscrupulous characters who take advantage of musicians.

The decision to study business wasn't difficult, Moore said, noting that at the time the Internal Revenue Service was taking Willie Nelson to task for back taxes.

"I didn't want that to happen to me," Moore said. "I think it's paid off in spades. I've seen many great players not get where they want to only because they haven't been paying attention to the business."

His decision has paid off: Moore's calendar is crammed with work.

He continues to play and record with Garage a Trois, a side project with Skerik and guitarist Charlie Hunter; and provided the grooves for singer Irma Thomas' 2006 post-Katrina epic "After the Rain."

Other collaborations include bassist Chris Wood of Medeski, Martin and Wood; the super-jam band Frequinox; Grammy-nominated heavy metal band Corrosion of Conformity; and Leo Nocentelli and George Porter, former guitarist and bassist, respectively, of the Meters.

"I just love playing drums and playing music," Moore said. "I love being expressive in different ways, and I love being challenged."

— Contact Charles Levin at wmlevin@gmail.com.