In the fall of 1995, I spent many nights in a dank basement club called the Cooler, a former refrigerated warehouse in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The neighborhood was raw -- the slaughterhouse smell of blood and death had coagulated in the cobblestones of Gansevoort Street and at night tall transvestite prostitutes from Brooklyn and the Bronx swarmed the area, taking their customers for rides in the back seats of taxi cabs.

Amid such loam, the Cooler, now defunct, was sometimes host to a moving musical party called Giant Step, now a record label. If the Meatpacking District seems an unusual place for a dance party, it may have been that the desperation and decay on the streets above seeped through the pavement to fuel the life of the party below. Ah, New York . . .

A party in itself, the Groove Collective first began exerting its earthy influence on New York's music scene through Giant Step, playing at the Cooler and other clubs around the city. Partygoers loved the band for its super-tight grooves, long jams and warm vibe; their seemingly effortless interplay was the envy of virtually any musician who checked out their gigs. For Chris Fatoye Thebarge, a founding member of the Collective who plays congas and bata drums, the goal of each show has always been the same: "To make people dance!"

In many ways, the stewlike inclusiveness of the band's sound represents the best of New York City's ability to enjoy its far-ranging musical and ethnic heritage.

"New York has been a major breeding ground for the Latino music scene and has also been the jazz capital of the world for decades," says Thebarge. "Not to mention that hip hop was also born in New York. So all these factors contribute to the sound of the Groove Collective's music. This is the environment we've grown up learning and playing in."

Thebarge's taxonomy of the band's sounds is a modest one. Put another way, in language more reflective of the band's exuberant funk, the Collective describes itself as "part social experiment, part musical experience. We've tried democracy, communism, capitalism, Dorian, chromatic, mescalydian, starvation diets, sleep depravation, meditation, mediation, co-op, cooped up, disco-ambient-futura-trance-jungle-drum and bass-trip hop-hip hop-acid-transistor-funk- rock-psychedelic-silicon-hard bop -beat-tube-electronic-live-dub- salsa-mambo combo with a twist . . . and you know, I think it might be the next big thing!"

If it isn't already.

In addition to throwing some of the grooviest dance parties New York has ever seen, Giant Step has been an essential force in uniting the urban sounds of underground DJs with serious musicians. "Giant Step was our breeding ground, it was our childhood playground as a group. We've worked closely with DJs and MCs throughout our history," Thebarge says. "We're always looking for new talent to work with from the MC/DJ world."

Describing the band's evolution, Thebarge continues, "In the early years, the band started out with a larger horn section, but as time went on we've become smaller, which has allowed for a new degree of improvisation and interaction." He also maintains that an important part of the band's continuing growth is for the musicians to spend time exploring opportunities outside the Collective.

"An important part of musical growth is new experience," says Thebarge. "Many members have participated and still participate in other projects, and we also work with many guests and colleagues around the world, which really allows us to grow and change musically."

The Collective's openness to new sounds has drawn the attention of some of the greatest names in dance music, perhaps looking to stay fresh themselves. They recently concluded a European tour that featured guest soloist Fred Wesley, a former trombonist with James Brown's JBs. Prior to that, the Collective featured P-Funk's Bernie Worrell on their tour of Russia. In the past, the band has opened for the Godfather of Soul himself, toured with the Dave Matthews Band and backed numerous others, including Tupac Shakur, Morcheeba and Natalie Merchant. They have also been privileged to share the stage with Isaac Hayes.

Back in New York, the Cooler was known to feature some pretty rough music -- Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore favored the place for his more experimental moods -- and the ambience inside the club could tend toward the abrasive. But the music of the Groove Collective softened the club's rough edges so that even the carcass-conveyer track on the ceiling seemed kinda groovy.