MUSIC : Percussionist a Man of World : Don’t call Luis Conte a jazz/Latin/pop musician. He plays all that, but he transcends labels.

Though Luis Conte is from Cuba, he objects when he’s stereotyped as simply a Latin-based musician. It’s just not so, he says.

“I don’t consider myself a jazz or Latin or pop or R & B musician. I’m just a musician. I play all kinds of music,” he says. Indeed, Conte has worked with such jazzmen as guitarist Pat Metheny and such pop icons as Madonna and Jackson Browne, as well as with Latin artists like Willie Bobo.

Interesting, then, that when Conte takes time from a busy studio and touring schedule to lead his own band--as he will Monday at the Baked Potato and again Aug. 16 at La Ve Lee in Studio City--he has no problem affixing a term to what he plays.

“Actually, there’s a brand name that’s kind of cool, and that’s world music,” Conte says.

“I like it because I have lived half my life in the United States, I come from Cuba and I have traveled the world, playing different music with people everywhere,” he says. “So my compositions have a taste of all those experiences. Some things might be really Afro-Cuban, some tunes may come from playing R & B, other things could be reggae-ish or African. So world music is a good name.”

At the Baked Potato, Conte will play a variety of percussion instruments that also reflect his world view. “I have congas, bongos and timbales,” he says, referring to the essentials of a Latin rhythm outfit. “But I also play tambourine, the Peruvian cajon , which is a wooden box that I hit with a stick, whistles and a whole assortment of other things.”

In 1987, Conte started to lead a group at the now-defunct North Hollywood club One For L.A. His band has been with him on and off ever since.

Monday he’ll work with regulars David Garfield (keyboards), Walfredo Reyes Jr. (drums), Jimmy Johnson (bass) and Brandon Fields (saxes). The group appears on Conte’s album “The Road,” due out in mid-August on Video Arts records.

The percussionist says there’s nothing quite like performing. “When the stuff is on, it’s like you’re flying on a magic carpet and you’re just gliding,” he says. “There’s no work to it, and it feels like you could go on forever.”

Conte always creates a stir when he plays, says pianist Don Randi, who owns the Baked Potato. “He’s probably the most innovative percussionist alive.”

Conte, who lives in Thousand Oaks with his wife, Lupe, and their two children, Luis Jr. and Carina, was born in the city of Santiago de Cuba and started playing drums as a kid. “In Cuba, it’s a way of life,” he says. But he didn’t become serious about music until after he moved at the age of 17 to Hollywood, where he lived with a cousin. “There was no freedom in Cuba, and I’m a man of the world who has to have freedom,” he explains.

In Hollywood, Conte sat in with various groups and got his first big break in 1974, when he toured with the Hues Corp., which then had a No. 1 Billboard pop chart hit, “Rock the Boat.”

In the mid-’80s, Conte broke into studio work. He has since recorded with Madonna (and done three world tours with her), Browne (on his latest, “I’m Alive” on Elektra), Metheny (“We Live Here” on Geffen), Guns N’ Roses and Rod Stewart. A recent week found him recording with four groups and giving a percussion clinic in Santa Cruz.

Conte says that while he can’t imagine leaving the music business, he’d do anything to support his family. “The music business, more than any other, is here today, gone tomorrow,” he says. “So if I have to work at a 7-Eleven store to feed my kids, I will.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WHERE AND WHEN

Who: Luis Conte.

Location: The Baked Potato, 3787 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood.

Hours: 9:30 p.m. Monday.

Price: $10.

Call: (818) 980-1615.