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James Farm
Growing
Fame
By Dan Ouellette // Photos By Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
A
Thursday night at the Jazz Standard could well be time for a sweet taste of rural jazz—that is, if you’re
judging by the name of the new-fledged band assembled to make its New York debut. Bluegrasssteeped,
Americana-infused Hot banjos and fine picking Distinctively no. In what is certainly the
most unusual name for a jazz group since The Bad Plus controversially barreled its way onto the scene more
than a decade ago, the quartet James Farm takes the stage for its packed-house show with a stellar cast:
saxophonist Joshua Redman (the elder at 42), pianist Aaron Parks (the younger at 27), bassist Matt Penman
and drummer Eric Harland (both in their 30s)—none of whom display any notion of hayseed cultivation even
though their eponymous CD’s gatefold opens up to a photo of a fallowed field ready to be planted, and its
cover is what looks to be an upside-down farmhouse.
Word has already leaked that James Farm is
no country outfit, but something newfangled
that nonetheless promises an intriguing project
that many might have assumed is Redman’s
new quartet for his latest Nonesuch album—
given that of the four, he’s the only musician
signed to the label. But, again, expectations are
quickly upended.
James Farm opens the set with “1981,” a
combustible Penman composition that changes
speeds through a spirited stretch of groove and
sax lyricism and ends in bass-piano dreaminess.
Next up is a new Redman composition, “If
By Air,” which swings lightly, changes tempo
and adheres to a tune-like sensibility. There are
the requisite displays of instrumental virtuosity—such
as Redman reflecting and lifting off
and Harland crisply skittering on the cymbals
and driving beats with a pleasant urgency—but
the solos are compact with an ear to return to
the melody, which is not merely a catchy head
but a full-blown song.
About halfway through the set, a Redman
fan squirms uncomfortably in his seat at a table
near the bar, frowns and complains, “This is
not Joshua.” He shakes his head and continues,
“This is dumbed down like what you’d see at a
festival or something.”
After Redman’s bluesy and shape-shifting
“Star Crossed” and Harland’s edgy-grooved,
tempo-accelerating “I-10”—both crammed with
exhilarating telepathic instrumental exchanges
among the members—the band settles into
Parks’ gem “Bijou,” which is played straight
with a relaxed hush. The Redman fan says again,
“This is not Joshua! It’s David Sanborn. He’s
dumbing it down.”
The reply to the unhappy audience member
expecting to see unabated Redman pyrotechnics:
“You’re right. It’s not Joshua. It’s James
Farm, which is not just Joshua.”
And that is the band’s story. James Farm is
not Redman’s new quartet, but a collective of
like-minded friends who are exploring something
new—not plotting out a onetime all-star
billing but letting their desire to collaborate
dictate the music. When James Farm, founded
in theory at the end of 2008, delivered its first
onstage meeting the following year as a band,
all four members had strong connective tissue
from the recent past. Redman, Harland and
Penman were in the SFJAZZ Collective from
to 2005 to 2007, and the rhythm team synced
up on Parks’ Invisible Cinema (Blue Note) and
Penman’s Catch Of The Day (Fresh Sound
New Talent), both released in 2008.
The band made its official launch at 2009’s
Montreal Jazz Festival, where Redman was
asked to curate the three-show By Invitation
series with his own bands, including a quintet
featuring the saxophonist flanked by Joe
Lovano, Sam Yahel, Reuben Rogers and
Gregory Hutchinson, and then a double trio
with Rogers, Hutchinson, Larry Grenadier and
Brian Blade. Part three of the trilogy was the
inauguration of the new collective.
“We had never played together, but we were
already a band,” Redman says at the Nonesuch
office in Manhattan, where all the band members
are amiably assembled. “It wasn’t like we put the
band together for the concert. We had already
started talking about playing together late in
2008. We were committed to playing together,
and it just so happened that I got the invitation
and everyone was available—which is a hard
thing for this band, given how busy we all are.”
There were three main forces at work to
form James Farm: search, soul and song.
“Hands down, it had to happen,” says
Harland. “You could just feel it. I had been
playing with Matt and Aaron and loving it,
and I’ve always wanted to play with just Josh.
I loved the quartet he had with Brad Mehldau,
Christian McBride and Brian Blade. It was a
pioneering group, as if it were the next leading
voice at the time they were together. They had
a lot of information and great things to say.”
That’s what Harland was hoping to find
with James Farm: “I wanted to stand up and be
in a group that has something to say in this age
where there are groups after groups coming
out. I wanted to associate myself with a band
that has a different meaning.”
At age 16, Parks met Redman when his
mother took him to see the saxophonist
play at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in
Wilmington, Del. They crossed paths over the
years, but it was the pianist’s Blue Note debut,
Invisible Cinema, that really got the juices
32 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2011