First things first: that's
DJ Williams as in the actor DJ Qualls, not as in
DJ Spooky: it's a name, not a job title.
Williams is best described as a rock-influenced jazz guitarist, and the first album by
the DJ Williams Projekt is a meeting point between '70s fusion (
Williams sounds like smooth jazz gurus
Larry Carlton and
George Benson are among his influences) and contemporary jam bands. The 11 lengthy songs here balance themselves between those two styles, sometimes going for an old-school
Crusaders-style smooth jazz groove, as on the mellow "Heavy Hands" and the Latin-tinged "For Her," which features an excellent, showboating solo from
Williams and some good old-fashioned electric piano to boot. On the other side of the stylistic equation is "Satisfaction," a grinding semi-blues that goes on far too long with little in the way of musical development; unfortunately, the only other song with vocals, the nearly ten-minute, reggae-tinged jam "Woman," isn't much better. Those two missteps aside,
Projekt Management is an entertaining, if somewhat meandering, listen. ~ Stewart Mason