Calling all concertgoers who want to experience music and dance in the aisles instead of watching a performance from the seats.

Tonight, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra will play in the "Mambo Madness" concert. The performance is one of four events in the Center for Performing Arts' "Cool Heat" jazz series.

"It's like a rave without drugs," Arturo O'Farrill, music director and pianist of the orchestra, said. "It's powerful dance music, and it's powerful because it's so explosive. The combination of big brass sound and the percussion is pretty amazing. It's a lot of fun."

Laura Sullivan, marketing and communications director for the Center for Performing Arts, said ticket sales for the concert are starting to pick up.

"I don't know why, but traditionally our jazz audience is a later-buying audience," Sullivan said. "This particular event is attracting a lot of people because the event is Latin."

The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, started in July 2002 by O'Farrill and Wynton Marsalis, is the second resident jazz orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City. The large ensemble includes 17 well-known Latin jazz musicians.

"Since then, we've added concerts, events, and tours," O'Farrill, who has been leading the ensemble for four years, said. "We're busy, and it's getting better and better."

O'Farrill is the son of the late Chico O'Farrill, a popular Afro-Cuban Latin musician, and said he began practicing music at a young age.

"Like all good kids, I took up [piano] lessons, but at the age of 7, I gave it up," O'Farrill said. "I later realized that I liked it and missed playing. I started improvising at around age 10, and I had a whole routine; I would pretend that there was an audience."

By age 11, O'Farrill said he had started his music education at Manhattan School of Music. He went on to preserve his father's legacy by directing the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. O'Farrill is also the recipient of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award for 2003.

Having performed on many educational tours, O'Farrill had some advice for students who aspire to become professional musicians.

"I think they really, really, really have to love it," O'Farrill said. "It's hard to make a living. If the pure aspect of playing gives you that joy versus the career aspect, then you'll get it. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of love. It takes a lot of training, studying and $30 gigs in the beginning. You gotta' love what you do."

Sullivan said she thinks the style of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra is an accessible form of jazz.

"It has great rhythms, and it makes you want to dance. For someone who hasn't tried jazz, this may be a good introduction to jazz or at least to this kind of jazz," Sullivan said.

Dan Yoder, director of jazz studies at Penn State, said he heard the ensemble perform a few years ago in New York. He said he plans on attending tonight's performance and highly recommends it. "[Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra] is fantastic and very infectious," Yoder said. "It's very energetic -- one of those concerts that you can't sit still to."