Project Grand Slam releases new music

Project Grand Slam releases new music

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As I see it, the trouble with the majority of pop music dominating the top slots on the Billboard charts has very little to do with originality and almost everything to do with effort; while there are some bands, like Robert Miller’s Project Grand Slam, who put an endless amount of attention into everything that they yield in the studio, so many others lack the fortitude and patience that it takes to make an album like PGS 7. In this brand new release from the aforementioned Project Grand Slam, grooves are an instrument of poeticism (take the songs “Yeah Yeah,” “Take Me” and “No One’s Fool” for instance). Rhythm is a template that was meant to be manipulated into as many different shapes and styles of swing that seven human beings can come up with in a jam session (“Torpedo of Love,” “Python,” and “Funk Latino” immediately come to mind). Melody is mountain that was meant to be conquered (cue “Get Out” and “Tree of Life” for this one) and lyricism is but one ingredient in a delicious sonic stew (the single “Redemption Road” and its counterbalance “With You,” obviously match this description).

Bassist and chief composer Robert Miller, keyboardists Marcello Casagrandi and Baden Goyo, lead singer Ziarra Washington, percussionist Guillermo Barron Rios, drummer Joel E. Mateo, guitarist Tristan Clark, as well as saxophonist Mario Castro, are in perfect rhythm with one another’s emotions in PGS 7, and despite the fact that Miller wrote most of this material (save for Dobie Gray’s “The ‘In’ Crowd”), I can’t imagine any other group of players delivering the songs on this record with as much panache as this crew does. “Get Out,” “I Don’t Know Why” and “Torpedo of Love” are effervescent musical beat-downs that attack us using different methods of mayhem, but when all is said and done, they have the same cratering emotional affect regardless of the order in which they’re absorbed. PGS 7 has the feel of a progressive concept album, but I actually find it to be at its most thrilling when played on shuffle. It makes for a slightly more jarring means of consumption, but then again, that is the way that this intellectually stimulating brand of jazz was always meant to be enjoyed.

Project Grand Slam’s PGS 7 is a must-listen for anyone who considers themselves to be a legitimate aficionado of modern rock, jazz and R&B, and though it’s a very experimentally-minded release, I think that it’s just as attractive a listen to pop fans as it is hardcore audio enthusiasts who take music much more seriously than most of the population does. Structurally, PGS 7 does not have a more ambitiously designed sound than what we’ve already heard from this band, but it does take some of the understated nuances in Trippin’ and The PGS Experience to a more postmodern place that gives the record an avant-garde texture setting it apart from more commercially-oriented mainstream jazz at the moment. I always love reviewing anything by Robert Miller, and this most recent studio work is definitely on par with the pedigree he’s set for his scene and those who would seek to join it.

Michael Rand

The music of Project Grand Slam has been heard all over the world due to the promotional services offered by Danie Cortese Entertainment & Publicity. Learn more here – http://www.daniecorteseent.com/