Armada Founders Carving an Intriguing New Groove

As real musicians flourishing in a world of DJs and samplers, Tom Findlay and Andy Cato encountered an existential question: Why make live presentations of music made with machines?

To that end, the London-based founders of Groove Armada have assembled a nine-member live band, which played its third-ever show Wednesday at the Mayan Theatre and largely jettisoned the loops and samples of their “Vertigo” album and other recordings. And here they danced (literally) around another existential query: Why use live musicians to re-create the machine-made structures and aesthetics?

They’re working on that, and Wednesday they seemed to be taking strong steps in the right direction. The ensemble is a talented crew, able to create convincing grooves inspired by the ‘70s jazz and funk of such models as Earth, Wind & Fire.

But it’s still evolving. Singer Mary Lee isn’t given much to do with her powerful, soul-R&B; voice besides repeat phrases that had originated as looped samples--and she is without the benefit of the odd context juxtapositions that make the recordings so arresting. And the three horn players (including Cato and Findlay) never played together as a section, which might have added some punch.

The most distinctive moment actually relied most on a sample--”At the River,” in which a Patti Page vocal clip repeats dreamily, with Cato’s trombone weaving sonorously around. And rather than merely re-create the album arrangement, Groove Armada added spiky percussion and a little reggae coda. It was a terrific meeting ground of analog and digital.