Cornetist Rob Mazurek could have taken the easy route in the Chicago jazz world, like so many others who develop chops through rigorous practice. In the early '90s, he settled down with a jazz quartet playing straight-ahead bebop.

"I was doing hard bop, trying my hardest to sound like Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, and later Miles Davis," he recalls. "But I came to a realization by hanging out with Art Farmer, of all people. He said, 'You're playing jazz, fine, but at some point you have to think about developing your own sound.' He encouraged me to not become another one of these guys emulating the past as a clone that's not as good as the masters." Rob Mazurek's Starlicker

Where: Andy Warhol Museum, North Side.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $12-$15. 412-237-8300.

He didn't have far to look for inspiration, entering the Bloom School of Jazz as a trumpet-playing teen. "It's run by David Bloom, an amazing teacher dealing with the conceptual side of jazz. He taught me the idea of getting your own sound based on dynamics and phrasing, rather than copying solos off old records. At the same time, I was buying recordings of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, and electric-period Miles. I came into this solid foundation through my investigation of various trumpet players from Farmer to Lester Bowie, from Don Cherry to Bill Dixon."

With such an adventurous palette, Mr. Mazurek inevitably drew from the wellspring of Chicago's legendary AACM collective, including Art Ensemble members such as saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell. "Later on, there was Fred Anderson, plus the younger generation [such as flutist] Nicole Mitchell, whom I've played with for a while. But inviting [jazz icon] Roscoe to play with the Exploding Star Orchestra was fantastic. He's the type of musician I find exemplary, not only in sound and concept but also as a human being."

Exploding Star was one of several groups that emerged out of Mr. Mazurek's late '90s effort to cross-pollinate with the burgeoning Chicago "post-rock" scene led by the band Tortoise. He performed with the likes of Tortoise, Stereolab, and Gastr Del Sol (with guitarist Jim O'Rourke, who later joined Sonic Youth) and also formed the mutable-sized Chicago Underground (a duo version of which opened for Stereolab in Pittsburgh in 2000). But the first release to see the light of day was "The Unstable Molecule" on Thrill Jockey by the fusion-esque Isotope 217, containing Tortoise members: guitarist Jeff Parker and drummers John Herndon and Dan Bitney. "Jeff had just moved to town from the Berklee School of Music. I had more of a jazz background, whereas Dan and John had a punk past and knew about African and Brazilian music, gamelan, even classic rock and hip-hop. So the whole idea [of Isotope and post-rock] was to open up so the sound was the thing rather than some kind of specific genre."

Post-rock set no limits on its influences, and Mr. Mazurek did not content himself merely with the discipline of music, expanding into painting, video, and multimedia installations. Mr. Mazurek's visual works bring to mind abstract giant Mark Rothko, so it makes sense that he was invited to create a multimedia performance at Houston's famous Rothko Chapel. A stop at the Warhol Museum for his newer trio, Starlicker, continues his drive to visit important architectural and artistic spaces and spiritual guideposts. "The idea to is make a visual and sound score using the feel of the places."

However, Starlicker (including Mr. Herndon and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz) isn't leaning on any visual projections or electronic effects. The lineup is pared down a bit from Exploding Star, where while performing with famed avant-trumpeter Dixon, Mr. Mazurek developed a video score suggesting abstract thinking about notes in terms of color and density. "It's a fairly organic way of not dictating what's happening musically," he explains. "Even with super-rigorous composed stuff, I've tried to stay away from the dictator role. The six songs we do on [Starlicker's new CD on Delmark] 'Double Demon' are constructed, but there's a freedom within those confines that I discovered for myself by doing the record. I'm able to hear all kinds of things beyond the actual melodies and rhythms."

According to Mr. Mazurek, Starlicker frees itself creatively from the top instead of the bottom, creating a kind of "electronic" ambience without using any electronic instruments. "With Ornette Coleman's classic trio, or a lot of stuff with horn, bass, and drums, you have that grounding in the bass to define what's happening on top. Johnny resonates super-full on the drum kit, and Jason hits really hard, all of which produces overtones. We're sustaining these frequencies from the top, like a harmonic cloud, to free the bottom up so when we go low, the bottom becomes what the top traditionally was. It's amazing to do that with three acoustic instruments."

Mr. Mazurek can also be found in the Sao Paulo Underground, an incredible group of three guys who deal with more hardcore electronics and the whole Brazilian angle on rhythm and melodic structure, as well as Brazilian experimental music.

"We're touring with that group in November," he says, "so maybe we could come to Pittsburgh, too, next spring."