Live albums at their very best are the ultimate way for listeners to connect with a band or artist on the most organic level without anything external getting in the way. In this sense, Project Grand Slam’s Greetings from Serbia is everything that most of us desire in a live record; it presents us with Robert Miller’s stunning jazz fusion/rock crossover project at their most raw, experimental and improvisational, and yet the group’s trademark attention to detail remains immaculately intact. If you’ve been following the streak of hot successes Project Grand Slam has racked up in the last couple of years, this LP will live up to everything that you could have hoped for – and perhaps make you appreciate one of North American jazz’s most inventive modern acts even more than you already do.
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Kicking off with the searing “You Started Something,” Robert Miller and his profound players waste absolutely no time cutting into us hard and deep with enormous grooves built around sophisticated time signatures and smoky vocals. Even the cover songs like their vivid rendition of The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” or the Experience classic “Fire” take on an entirely different life in this album, exercised by the dexterous drumming of Joel Mateo and the brilliant riffing of Tristan Clark. The spotlight never remains transfixed on any one particular instrumentalist over another, although tunes like the sobering “1972” wouldn’t be nearly as stirring without the sensuous sax play of the unparalleled Mario Castro. These songs are steeped in calculated jazz ribbonry, and despite their virtuosity somehow manage to avoid the pitfalls of overindulgence.
Vocalist Ziarra Washington is, put simply, a melodic vision in Greetings from Serbia, dishing out one cascading harmony after another in soulful jams like “Free,” the smash single “Lament” and the playful “No No No.” Sometimes she employs a conservative style of attack, like in the wistful “I’m So Glad,” but for the most part she’s completely mad here, giving us a sublime performance that utilizes her incredible vocal range like none have previously. I came into Greetings from Serbia well aware that Washington was a force to be reckoned with, but to say that she has the stage presence of a powerhouse veteran twice her age would be an understatement of epic proportions.
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Whether you’re a hardcore jazz fan who lives for the cerebral sway of “The Queen’s Carnival” or you just can’t get enough of a solid experimental rock tune ala “Gorilla,” this LP is an amazingly magnetizing piece of music that allows us to get a front row seat to one of the most spellbinding live bands actively touring today. Robert Miller may be the brains of this operation, but he’s undeniably surrounded himself with some of the most exquisitely trained performers in the game, and this record truly encapsulates the energy of their relentless musicality. Greetings from Serbia is the first explosive release of 2019 and promises to keep the creative flame that has been driving Project Grand Slam from the beginning burning brightly into the new year.
Gwen Waggoner
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/
