Latin jazz is one of the most vital forms going, and I’ll tell you why: Besides having irresistible dance rhythms and vital tonal colors, this music still serves the original audience for which it was created. You can’t say that about Dixieland or the blues, which originally flourished as dance music but are almost never presented in such venues anymore. Latin jazz has transformed itself into an art music and a pop music while still remaining a folk music.

This was brought home at the climactic event of this year’s JVC Jazz Festival, Saturday night’s concert at Carnegie Hall. The whole audience rocked even while seated, and you could feel entire balconies swaying to the clave beat. At other JVC concerts, leaders labor hard to get crowds singing along or clapping along. Here they started chanting without anybody having to cue them – people even brought their own maracas and played along.

The Carnegie show was staged in honor of Art D’Lugoff, the impresario of the Village Gate, whose “Salsa Meets Jazz” events in the 1970s did for Latin jazz what Norman Granz’s “Jazz at the Philharmonic” had done for the jam session 30 years earlier – by bringing together the top players in both Cuban and North American jazz. The two veteran musicians spotlighted, congero Ray Barretto and the master of the Montuno, pianist Eddie Palmieri, have been leading bands for nearly 50 years.

People use the term “Latin jazz” to indicate a vast array of Pan-American musical forms and fusions. Virtually every Latin musical genre has been merged with jazz at some point, from the Argentinean tango to the Spanish flamenco. Essentially, however, Latin jazz boils down to two genres: the Brazilian bossa nova and Cuban salsa. In other words, rhumbas, mambos, and what Dizzy Gillespie called Afro-Cuban jazz.

The opening half of the Carnegie concert was called “The Two Worlds of Ray Barretto,” and Mr. Barretto described it as two mini-sets. He began with his sextet, New World Spirit, which includes two prominent New York horn players: Joe Magnarelli on trumpet and Myron Walden on alto saxophone. The rhythm players were American trap drummer Vince Cherico and two Puerto Rican brothers, Ricardo Rodriguez on bass and Roberto Rodriguez on piano.

This was essentially hard bop with a Latin edge to it, not that different from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers playing “Pensativa.” They followed most compositions faithfully, with long solos interspersed. The group played Mr. Magnarelli’s original, “Mags,” and an ambitious arrangement by Mr. Walden of the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” which used both Cuban rhythms and classical forms. Then Mr. Barretto’s group became an octet with the addition of two guest soloists, the trumpeter Randy Brecker and baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber.

Halfway through the opening set, Mr. Barretto brought out his second musical “world,” his full-sized Latin dance orchestra. That meant four brass (three trumpets and one trombone), three singers (including the star crooner Alberto Santiago), two additional percussionists, another piano, and an electric stand-up bass. The performance featured fewer modern jazz elements, but still improvised solos. As a drummer-bandleader, the 76-year-old Mr. Barretto remains as fiery as ever. But he didn’t grandstand, and in fact restrained from taking the spotlight at all until his final number.

Pianist Eddie Palmieri took over after intermission with Y La Perfecta II. His big orchestra is similar in format to Mr. Barretto’s, except that it reverses the brass setup, with three trombones (including Conrad Herwig) and one trumpet (Brian Lynch). His innovative front line features four vocalists who double on guitar and percussion, and his very aggressive and animated flutist, Karen Joseph, at times leads the brass with a very hard metallic edge. She’s also just about the only female musician I have ever seen in a Latin band.

Mr. Palmieri’s ensemble was again joined by Mr. Brecker and Mr. Cuber. The former played as well as I have ever heard him, and the latter purely communicated his joy in being there and playing. He not only played during his preplanned solo spots but was constantly improvising along with the ensembles. In short, he played every time he got a chance to, and seemed like he was loving it.

Mr. Palmieri’s new album, “Listen Here” (Concord Picante 2276), realizes the Latin-jazz fusion even more successfully. Guest soloists Christian McBride (bass), Regina Carter (violin), and Mr. Brecker (tenor saxophone) all join the pianist’s regular ensemble in a program of mostly jazz standards by Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and Dizzy Gillespie. Eddie Harris’s title track shows that Latin jazz fuses especially effectively with soul-jazz. “Listen Here” is being released at the same time as a four-CD box celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Concord Picante label, “25th Anniversary Collection” (42269).

This label, formed by Carl Jefferson in 1979, provided a focal point for the music on the West Coast in the same way “Salsa Meets Jazz” did in New York. It sought out established stars of the genre, starting with the brilliant vibraphonist Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, and Tito Puente. It also nurtured new ones, especially percussionist Poncho Sanchez, while bringing in heavyweights from Ray Charles to Ken Peplowski as guests. With the notable exception of the dated and gimmicky vocals of Tania Maria, the music holds up remarkably well.

And Afro-Cuban jazz continues to thrive in New York. The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, which is the second ensemble in residence at Jazz at Lincoln Center, has just released its first album, “Una Noche Inolvidable (An Unforgettable Night)” (Palmetto 2111). There is also a new, New York-based label, Zoho Music, dedicated to Latin jazz in all its myriad forms. Among its new releases is “Live in Brooklyn,” a trio recording by the pianist Arturo O’Farrill, who happens to be director of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.

Collections like the Picante box and the new “Soul Cookin'” (Picante 5312), which also draws from Concord’s newly acquired Fantasy catalog, are especially recommended, and not just for novice listeners. This is music that works especially well in the anthology format. Each album becomes, in effect, a dance party – one that can be enjoyed even by those of us who can’t even remotely dance.