Over the past several years, the organ combo has made a remarkable resurgence, as young musicians find the pared down format of keyboards, drums, sax and/or guitar conducive to exploring a variety of sonic grooves and textures. Groups such as Soulive; Medeski, Martin & Wood; Joshua Redman’s Elastic Band; and Chris Potter’s Underground all offer a contemporary spin on an approach originally popularized by such notables as Big John Patton, Brother Jack McDuff, Babyface Willette, Larry Young and the legendary Jimmy Smith.

Organism, a Boston-based quartet comprised of Steve Giannaros on tenor sax, Brian Leccese on guitar, Pete McLean on drums and John Corda on keyboards and left-hand bass, offers its take on this group sound with “Sound Helmet,” a remarkable self-produced and self-released debut recording that exudes a variety of pulsating grooves. Rendered by a group that is comfortably tight as an ensemble, the disc highlights some fine individual playing by each instrumentalist. The music, mostly originals written by Corda and Leccese, is in a jazz-funk-Latin vein that both offers a variety of tonal colors without sacrificing the core grooves and serves as a starting point for exceptional solos from all the group members.

Giannaros and Leccese, in particular, offer inspired playing from start to finish. What I especially like about Giannaros’ playing is that he doesn’t allow himself to fall into the trap of cloning the hard, edgy sound and robust technique of Michael Brecker—a problem that plagues so many saxophonists in this genre. Instead, Giannaros has a rich, full sound on the tenor and executes his ideas in a thoughtful, melodic style. Leccese is equally creative as he alternates his searing lines with inspired rhythmic comping. Check out “Two Percent Higher,” “Cielo” and “Funky Stump” for examples of fine work by these two musicians.

Corda is an equally adept player and offers a variety of sound textures on organ and Rhodes electric piano. Pete McLean is as rock solid a drummer in this idiom as any I’ve heard, with a deep pocket sense of time and imagination to follow the others wherever their ideas take them. Percussionist Yahuba Garcia lends his always tasteful playing to four of the disc’s 11 tracks, giving those tunes an extra dimension. Two covers round out the CD—a straight-up version of Joshua Redman’s “Jazz Crimes” and a nice version of Donald Fagen’s “Brite Nightgown” that retains the tune’s humor while offering unique modifications.
All in all, a solidly superb debut CD.

Organism will perform at the Press Room on Friday, Dec. 21 at 9 p.m. For more information, go to myspace.com/therealorganism.