Their gospel-tinged jazz is just one of the unusual things about the trio Organics, who have many strings to their bow, writes Arminta Wallace

Organics is an unusual name for a jazz trio. But then, Organics is an unusual jazz trio. The band has been a regular Friday night fixture in Slattery's pub in Dublin for the past eight years. It began, as most trios do, by playing standards; this month, however, sees the release of the group's debut album, New Light, featuring nine original compositions. Organics is also the first jazz combo ever to feature in Music Network's Young Musicwide programme, which had previously concentrated on up-and-coming classical ensembles.

But most unusual of all is the Organics sound. Jazz trios usually feature the coolly percussive tones of a piano; the music of Organics, by contrast, is bathed in the warm, rich swell of the Hammond organ. Which, as Organics keyboard player Justin Carroll points out, conjures up a totally different set of emotional colours and musical reference points. "It has heavy roots in gospel, which the three of us have experienced at first hand, getting up and playing in a Harlem jazz club," he says.

"The people there want you to play with emotion, not just to play loads of notes. It's all about giving it 100 per cent and being soulful about what you do.

"The Hammond sound has very strong roots in that tradition. It's very hard to get away from them. I think it's not worth trying to get away from them. Better to be aware of your roots, then try and branch off in whatever direction you want."

In this suitably organic spirit, the three members of the band have grown their own style of gospel-tinged jazz. Their musical influences are healthily varied.

On guitar is John Moriarty, who taught himself to play by listening to rock heavyweights Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Then he heard the virtuoso jazz guitarist Joe Pass on the radio. "I recorded the piece and worked it out," he says. "I thought, 'This is the way to go'." Miles Davis, Chick Corea and Wes Montgomery are among the musicians Moriarty admires most.

"What stood out about a lot of those guys, when I first heard them, was that they had a bluesy thing going on," he says. "Which was not that different from a lot of rock music at the time, when you think about it."

Drummer Kevin Brady began to study classical piano at the age of six. Then he took up the cornet and trumpet, spending a decade playing with the Cambridge Concert Band in Ringsend. "My father was a big-band fan," he says. "He was always listening to Sarah Vaughan and Dizzy Gillespie. And I was always trying to mimic them - very badly."

At 18, Brady was playing keyboards in a band when he became an accidental drummer. "I went to a jam session with some friends and the drummer didn't show up. The guitarist told me to hop on the drums - and I just got the bug. I listened to lots of different people - Stuart Copeland from The Police, people like that. I was really curious about how they could do these kind of things on the drums."

In order to find out, he embarked on the study of classical percussion. "The teacher I had at the time was trying to get me away from the rock attitude of just playing at one volume all the time," he explains. "Classical percussion was all to do with dynamics and different rhythmic styles - but jazz offered more scope for improvisation, so I then did a diploma in jazz drumkit performance."

One of the biggest strengths of Organics, its members say, is that while working together, they have continued to pursue their individual musical interests. These, they insist, feed and nourish the band's development. Carroll, for example, studied music and media technology at Trinity, which has given him a thorough grounding in recording technology and all things electronic. Moriarty has developed an interest in building guitars, and currently plays an instrument he made himself.

"It took me over a year because I had to build up a collection of tools and do a lot of research into all the different aspects of the work - carving, finishing, and there's a bit of metalwork in there," he says. The wood comes from Italy: spruce, grown at high altitude in the Alps.

"In cold climates, trees grow very slowly, so you get a rigid soundboard," says Moriarty. "The guitars you buy in shops are made in factories with huge industrial machines that press the wood into shape; if you carve it, the wood can vibrate naturally, producing a sound you can't replicate."

As Brady explains, the Young Musicwide programme has added some further strings to the band's bow. "What Young Musicwide means is that Music Network, basically, acts as a promoter for us for three years, offering business and legal advice and organising up to 10 concerts a year in various arts centre around Ireland. Playing in an arts centre, where people are sitting listening to you, is very different to playing in a setting where people are standing at the bar ordering a pint - and changing our set to incorporate those two different aspects of performance has been very good for us."

The scheme also included the idea of recording a promotional CD. "We decided to push the boat out and get a proper album out of it," says Brady. "We asked Music Network for the extra money - and they were totally into it." The result is New Light, mixed and mastered by Carroll. The mood is laid-back, the playing accomplished, the tracks delightfully varied.

One number features a certain postal delivery worker and his black and white cat. A comment on the cool-cat jazz stereotype? Moriarty chuckles. "We were just noodling around one day, and - well, the theme tune from the kids' TV series Postman Pat is a tune everyone knows," he says. "Then somebody came up with some jazz chord changes on it, and we went - 'You can't be serious' . . ."

Carroll's composition Angela's Kitchen is a mark of respect to Brady's aunt, in whose eponymous kitchen the band spend a good deal of time rehearsing. "It's a funky, fun kind of track," Brady says. "She hasn't heard it yet, but she's very impressed she has a tune to herself."

Brady's Elysian Fields strikes a more sombre note. "It's based around a modal idea," he says. "I'd been writing a couple of different melodies and had some four-bar sections and stuff like that. I put the whole thing together and put a group arrangement on it. It's a bit melodramatic and a bit dark, but . . ." He shrugs. "That's what I was thinking at the time."

And what about According to John? "Well," says Moriarty, "that tune has some typically gospel-style chord changes, and it was written by me, so . . . "

Though very serious about music, the members of Organics clearly aren't too serious to send themselves up. "Slattery's is very helpful in that respect," says Moriarty. "You get a lot of different people who just turn up - maybe they don't know there's music on, maybe they see it in the listings and just come to check it out. But so many times, people have come up to me afterwards and said 'Hey, that was great - and I don't even like jazz'."

• Organics play in Slattery's of Rathmines, Dublin, on Friday nights. New Light will be released on July 25. See also www.organicsmusic.com