Review: James Farm Project

Aaron Parks solo effort: Invisible Cinema

Last week we gave a shout out to keyboardist, and Seattle native, Aaron Parks and pointed you in the direction of Jazz Alley to go hear the James Farm Project. As we often do, we took our own advice and headed down and caught the final set of their three-night stand.

All we can say is that this is a band possessed.

Before the band took the stage it was clear by the energy of the near-capacity crowd that this was going to be a set not to forget. Even Joshua Redman, who heads up the James Farm Project, foretold what we were all in for as he waited for the welcoming applause to die down, looked over the crowd with a knowing grin and exclaimed, “this is the biggest and the best audience we’ve had during this run…and the two don’t always go together.”

The group wasted no time as they eased right into Coax, a piece written by bassist Matt Penman. Having been playing together since 2009, it was clear that the James Farm Project had settled into themselves; their interactions were nuanced and restrained - yet they had no trouble kicking it up to a fevered pitch at a moment’s notice only to bring it back down again just in time for the finish.

Next, Redman held the spotlight as his harmonics on tenor playfully led into his own composition Polliwog. Once the number kicked in pianist Aaron Parks started to lay down a solid left hand bass line that gave Redman plenty of freedom to move around the song’s structure.

The stage was set for a couple of numbers from Parks - Bijou and Chronos. With these two compositions, and especially on Chronos, the group showed that they had more than enough funk to go around. Laying down a hypnotic track underneath it all was drummer Eric Harland. He seamlessly went in and out of straight ahead jazz, to funk, and a little soul. He even threw in some beats for the steppin' crowd.

After an hour and a half of delighting the crowd with songs from their most recent self titled release, the James Farm Project ended the evening the same way they started - nuanced and restrained. Closing with Low Fives, the group was introspective and played well off one another; Redman’s rich, melodic tones on sax, Parks’ assured touch on piano, Penman’s interplay on bass and Harland on drums keeping them all together until the last sounds of the evening fell softly over the room.

If you didn’t heed our call to catch them this time around you should at least check out their recent release, James Farm, online.

Jazz Alley continues to bring in the heavyweights of jazz. Starting tonight Gary Burton will set up his vibes and hold court for two nights only. Trust us - this is another 'can't miss' show.