Only a year after its predecessor, Kenosha bassist Kal Bergendahl leads his piece-member smooth jazz Project in another set of Parallels. Just as previous installments found the band evoking various geographical, hydrological and celestial phenomena to ends that smudged the distinctions between fusion and bop, III follows suit, but with twist.
As with the volumes preceding it, III consists of a half-dozen tracks; however, this time, three are brief pierces played by Project keyboardist Theo Merriweather. After each of those comes fully fleshed out, lengthier compositions where's Bergendahl's bottom end understatedly holds together the keys, brass, brass, guitar and percussion surrounding him. And those three longer works get progressively funkier, until the ensemble concludes with the sort of soul-jazz hybridization that would have done early ‘70s Donald Byrd proud. Along the way, there’s room for the sort of mellow, though melodically challenging, workouts befitting today's smooth adult contemporary radio. Bergendahl’s Project continue proffering fusion that stands out in the foreground of a genre that provides background sounds.
