When Groove Collective debuted on the New York music scene in the mid-'90s, the band perfectly captured the multicultural vibe of the city — or to be more precise, Brooklyn. The group's mélange of upbeat Puerto Rican and Cuban rhythms, jazz fusion, Latin jazz, hip-hop and funk was a hit in the clubs at the height of the acid jazz wave. Well over 10 years since, the sound is still vital to the jazz dance scene anywhere you go.

Jonathan Maron, the group's bassist then and now, recalls an earlier visit to Prague: "I still remember those shows we played at the Lucerna Music Bar. The music, of course, but also the people we met, walks around the city, going out after the show. Prague is an amazing city; I don't know why it's taken so long to make our way back."

On Groove Collective's Web site, one member of the group describes it very imaginatively: "Part social experiment, part musical experience ... we've tried democracy, communism, capitalism ... mediation, meditation, co-op, cooped up, disco-ambient-futura-trance-jungle-drum and bass-trip hop-hip-acid-transistor-funk-rock-psychedelic-silicon-hard bop-big beat-tube-electronic-live-dub-salsa-mambo combo with a twist."

That's still pretty accurate, according to Maron, though he adds, "The biggest difference in 2006 is how we resolve our occasional disagreements. We are all creative and therefore deeply personally invested in the band, so having to communicate can be difficult. Through time, we've learned that the music, as well as our creative and social relationships, seem to evolve on their own. It's much more satisfying to support the evolution than it is to struggle over whose singular vision should be carried out."

The band's newest release, People People Music Music, adds a few more genres to their ever-expanding mix. There's gliding electro-jazz and an Afro-beat track that is pure Fela Kuti, featuring Fred Wesley (of James Brown's famous funk band) on a trombone solo. A later track on the CD, "Six for Fred," is dedicated to Wesley. Perhaps the standout cut on the disc is a tribute to the late conguero Tito Puente, with recognizable Puente melodies and chants of his name interspersed with an improvised Latin groove.

For the uninitiated, this is how Maron defines groove: "Groove is the feeling you get from repeated rhythmic phrase. It's the part of the music that you dance to. Whether heavily or just implied, it's a framework that holds the whole thing together."

As a musical reference point, if there is any one group or musician that comes closest to the Groove Collective sound, it would be fellow Brooklynite Roy Ayers, the inimitable funky disco-jazz master of the mid- to late-'70s. But while Ayers combined the gritty, soulful funk of NYC with an earthy fusion jazz, Groove Collective takes the same approach with constantly updated forms of jazz, Afro-Latino and electronic dance music.