People, get ready: Mosaic Foundation will push you, pull you, and rock you steady. The band is a righteous nine-piece, rock-reggae blast with twists of jazz and plenty of coloring outside the lines. It's a mesmerizing mosaic of hooks and grooves that will shake your foundation.

The band is relatively new to the scene; the core group of vocals, bass, guitar, and drums hit the scene in October of 2008 and didn't swell to its current nine-piece line-up - which includes Laura "Miss Eva Bless" Haykel, vocals; John Lourette, saxophone; Ken Luk, guitar and melodica; Mike Corey, lead guitar; J.P. Nawn, drums; Ben Panepento, bass; Ekwem Bogmis, keyboards; Matt Walden, trumpet; and Tim Shneier, trombone - until just about a year ago.

Mosaic Foundation is authentic and fairly referential in its reggae renderings, yet it employs its horns for more than just their bright call, response, and punch. It's the horn work that really puts Mosaic Foundation at the top - and maybe even one step beyond - the band's chosen genre.

"I think we have a lot of jazz influence because we have a full horn section," says Luk. "And in almost all of the songs we do some improv. This is different from a lot of other reggae bands. They may have a horn section, but they're not really doing like, 30-second solos."

Beyond the brass, a wide spectrum of additional influences contribute to the overall mosaic of Mosaic Foundation, Haykel says.

"Our members have musical tastes and influences from all over the world," she says. "And they all lend to the sound that we create together. Personally, I have a very strong connection to Middle Eastern and West African music aside from reggae."

Still, with sounds bounding in from every direction, the creative strife appears to be non-existent - no head-butting or rehearsal dust-ups to speak of.

"I would say the musical collaboration so far has been pretty fun," says Haykel. "We're all open to different ideas. Our rehearsals are cool. We all just come together nicely."

"Yeah, I think it's working," Luk says. "The writing process is fine. Usually a person has an idea for a song and brings it to the table and we try to arrange the song together." A lot of the fine tuning is done on stage, as the songs get polished before a crowd.

Mosaic Foundation hits with a slow fury; an intensity that is generally reserved for harder, faster groups in any style of music. And as slow and sweet as Mosaic Foundation gets, there's plenty of get up, get down, and giddy-up. Yet when the band does accelerate, it's still full of splendid ease and grooves, like a hammock in a hurricane.

A lot of this translates to Haykel's body as her upper and lower halves frequently twist in at least two different directions as she paces the stage. As the joy and vibe sets in, she gets swept up, adopting the music's groove and even its patois. This can leave some purists scratching their heads.

"Sometimes when I'm on stage the Jamaican comes out in me," Haykel says. "Some people get a little confused. But it comes out from a real and true place. The Jamaican crowd, they're kind of tough, and for me, I'm an Arab-American from the suburbs of Buffalo, New York, but I've had a love affair with reggae music since I was 12, and I've also been open to Rastafari since I was 16 years old. I've traveled to Jamaica and I've been around Jamaicans for many years."

But she hasn't been on stage that long. You look at the 32-year-old Haykel's confident command and presence - not to mention hear her powerful voice - and you'd assume she'd shot out of the womb doing this.

"I just started singing," she says. "Our first show was my first show on stage. I'd never been on stage before. A year and a half ago, if you told me I'd be on stage singing in front of 300 people I would've said, ‘No way.'"

The band was recently given the opportunity to audition for the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival Band Quest this year. It has roughly 18 original songs composed, "more than enough material written to start working on an album," says Haykel. "But as you know, it's a process." A process that is earning the band increasingly larger and enthusiastic crowds, like a recent show at Dubland Underground.

"The vibe was just right, everything synched," Haykel says. It's the pursuit of that vibe and synchronicity that got her on stage to begin with. Haykel sums it up: "Spirit," she says. "Spirit."

Mosaic Foundation also plays as part of the Hope For Haiti Benefit Saturday, February 6, at Water Street Music Hall. For more information see the preview write-up in this week's music calendar, or visit waterstreetmusic.com.