There are a
lot of interesting things going on in pop music right now, but as I see it, few
acts touring today have the prowess to compete with Robert Miller’s Project
Grand Slam, whose new record PGS7 is
taking the jazz fusion world by storm this summer. Unsurprisingly to those who
follow the group, Project Grand Slam’s latest studio affair is littered with
powerfully melodic lyricism (delivered by Ziarra Washington) and a bevy of
instrumental treasures like “Torpedo of Love” and “Funk Latino” that only add
to the jam session-feel of the tracklist. It’s a fully-loaded disc, and it
couldn’t be arriving at a much better time of year.
“Python,” “Redemption Road,” “No One’s Fool”
and “Take Me” express more with their rhythmic drumbeats than they do with
their decadent melodicism, whereas “Get Out!,” “At Midnight” and the vicious,
groove-driven “I Don’t Know Why” use plunging basslines and searing sax play to
get everyone within earshot clinging to the edge of their seats. Robert Miller
is using everything at his disposal in PGS7, whether it be his
players or the instruments that they wield like divine weapons, in making a big
statement about the current direction of this much-buzzed pet project.
When she steps up to the mic in songs like
“Tree of Life” and “With You,” the whole world belongs to Ziarra Washington,
who submits some of her most profoundly beautiful vocal work to date in this
album. Both of these ballads contain just as much zeal as we hear from her in
the single “Redemption Road” and Project Grand Slam’s affectionate cover of
“The ‘In’ Crowd,” but there’s something all the more special about their
slow-paced melodies as she commands them. She’s become such a powerhouse in her
own right, and in some ways is just as much the face of this band as Miller
himself is.
I don’t often say this about LPs that are as
long and in-depth as this one is, but pretty much every song here would make
for a decent single. You don’t have to be the biggest fusion fan on the planet
to get into the thick grooving of “Funk Latino” or “At Midnight;” in fact, I
think that a lot of this material would play just as well with adult contemporary
and experimental rock fans as it would with hardcore jazz fanatics. PGS7 could
act as an essential gateway drug for a lot of curious listeners interested in
finding a more erudite sound this summer, but even if it didn’t, it’s still a
major upgrade from most anything I’ve heard gracing the American Top 40 lately.
Project Grand Slam provide us with an
immaculate smorgasbord of colorful crooning and artful rhythm in this most
recent release via Cakewalk Records, and if history has taught us anything
about this band (and really anything that Robert Miller is involved in), it’s
that PGS7 is only a blueprint for whatever is going to come
out of their next trip to the recording studio. This is one group that can
always be counted on for a rock-solid melody just when we think they’ve gone
extinct, and it’s hard to see that reputation changing anytime soon after hearing
this awesome LP.
Joshua Beach
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