Shauli Einav Quartet - Living Organs

Saxophonist/composer Shauli Einav debuts a thrilling electric quartet on his stunning new album, Living Organs, featuring guitarist Eran Har Even, organist Laurent Coulondre and drummer Paul Wiltgen.

Each organ in the human body serves its own vital role, on its own indispensable to the functioning of the whole; but life only truly becomes miraculous when all of these components work together. On his new release, Living Organs, saxophonist/composer Shauli Einav debuts a new quartet that operates on the same synergistic principle. The album conjures a scintillatingly original sound from the chemistry of four distinctive individuals.

“In this band, each part is a vital one and has a very unique individual role,” Einav says. “I feel like we're four soloists playing together, and because of that I’m being fed ideas more than ever before.”

Like Einav, whose path has led from his native Israel through New York and Paris before settling in Luxembourg, the new quartet comprises a global and nomadic cast. Guitarist and bassist Eran Har Even relocated from Israel to Amsterdam, where he’s now an active member of the Dutch jazz scene as well as an educator on faculty at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Organist and keyboardist Laurent Coulondre hails from Nimes, France and is now based in Paris, though he discovered his passion for the organ while studying in Catalonia. Drummer Paul Wiltgen is a Luxembourg native, though he studied at Manhattan School of Music and worked with the likes of David Binney, Ambrose Akinmusire and Kurt Rosenwinkel during his years in New York City.

Beyond its more metaphorical meaning, Living Organs is a play on the concept of the jazz organ group, hinting at the fact that this is a more modern, evolving take on the form. The album represents a turn towards a more electric, groove-based approach for Einav, whose past releases have mined a more acoustic, swing-rooted vein. The eclectic and propulsive sound acknowledges that his love of jazz grew not in a vacuum, but amid an equal zeal for contemporary rock and pop music.