New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Project Grand Slam, the jazz-rock fusion group whose frontman is bassist Robert Miller, will be releasing the first single from their upcoming album The Queen's Carnival on July 1. This single, "The Rescue," draws from a variety of influences and highlights Miller's unique approach to blending the sounds of jazz and rock that he loves. This is the first single from Project Grand Slam's upcoming fourth full-length release, titled The Queen's Carnival. While mostly instrumental, this project features a guest appearance by vocalist
Lucy Woodward on a completely re-imagined cover of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me," and it will be released on August 19.
First single "The Rescue" features Project Grand Slam exploring an infectious funk groove, but Miller says the song did not start off that way. "This was the final song we wrote for the new record," he notes. "It started off as I was listening to 'Crossroads' by Cream, which is one of my favorite live songs." As Miller and Project Grand Slam worked on the song, however, it morphed into the
James Brown style funk tune that it is today, while keeping the jazz fusion roots of Project Grand Slam and the blues structure and rock elements of "
Crossroads".
"The Rescue" has been a fixture of recent Project Grand Slam live shows and is already a proven crowd favorite.
Following the successful 2015 release of their third album Made in New York, Project Grand Slam returns with The Queen's Carnival, a release that Miller describes as "a mix of rock and jazz that are my true inspirations." Each song on The Queen's Carnival is inspired by something or someone in particular, just as "The Rescue" draws from such varied inspirations as
Cream and
James Brown. The exciting and fresh take on fusion (Miller calls The Queen's Carnival a post-fusion record) features eleven tracks, including both vocal and instrumental versions of "You Really Got Me." This continues Project Grand Slam's traditions of reinventing a popular classic rock song and featuring multiple versions of the cover track.
About Project Grand Slam:
Project Grand Slam - the brainchild of bassist/leader/composer Robert Miller - continues to create and perform their brand of fusion at the highest level.
PGS's third album - Made In New York - was released in
September 2015 and featured two singles, "New York City Groove" and "Fire" (Robert's re-imagined version of the
Jimi Hendrix classic). Both singles featured 2013 "
The Voice" semi-finalist Kat Robichaud on vocals. The band and Kat also filmed videos for "
Groove" and "Fire" that have been viewed over 150,000 times to date.
Robert originally formed the band in 2007. PGS's first two celebrated CDs, Play (2008) and
Spring Dance (2012), had two top radio singles - "The
Captain Of Her Heart" (feat. Judie Tzuke on vocals) from Play, and "Catch You Later" from
Spring Dance. The band also had a featured role in the hit NBC-TV series "Lipstick Jungle" starring Brooke Shields and Kim Raver, with five of the band's tunes featured in the soundtrack.
