James Farm’s sophomore album, City Folk, is out now. The album features a new collection of ten original tunes written by all four members of the collaborative band: saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland. On City Folk the group continues to use traditional acoustic jazz quartet instrumentation for its song-based approach to jazz and incorporates the members’ myriad influences. You can hear the opening track, "Two Steps," below. To pick up a copy of City Folk, head to iTunes or the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include an instant download of the complete album; it is also available there as MP3, FLAC lossless, and 96kHz/24bit high-definition FLAC files.

City Folk earns a perfect five stars from the Financial Times, whose Mike Hobart describes it as "ten beautifully crafted miniatures that rock with rhythm while holding virtuosity in check," and four stars from both the Guardian and the Evening Standard.

"With their eponymous 2011 debut, the talented US collective James Farm created an attractive formula: fluent contemporary-bop soloing on pop-like tunes, country ballads, and some European-folk mutations," writes the Guardian's John Fordham. On the new album, "the soloing is even more compelling." Fordham concludes: "[I]t’s Parks and Redman’s enthralling improvisations that give this inviting set its special character." Read more at theguardian.com.

"James Farm is a jazz supergroup with an indie disposition," writes the Evening Standard's Jane Cornwell in her four-star review; "four crack musicians and improvisers whose fierce grooves and synergy make for spine-tingling listening." You can read the review at standard.co.uk.

Buffalo News music critic Jeff Simon calls the new album "the second first-rate disc by one of the more impressive jazz quartets to come together in the past few years." Each of the musicians is "equally responsible for the excellence of their group’s music," says Simon, who concludes: "Group exultation, if you will—with a fair amount to be exultant about." Read the complete review at buffalonews.com.

“The music on City Folk is a window onto one part of our musical personalities and a step forward in terms of defining the sound of the band,” says Penman. “In general, we like to let the songs lead the way, and each of these tunes is like a mini world unto itself with its own ecosystem and hidden places to discover.” Redman explains the band’s commitment “not just to vehicles for improvisation but to songs that tell stories.” Parks notes, “By writing for this band, our individual writing styles begin to influence one another’s. A few songs by different composers have thematic things that tie them together almost accidentally.”

The quartet members have performed in this exact configuration since its debut at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2009. Before that, Redman, Harland, and Penman performed together as part of the SFJAZZ Collective, and pianist Aaron Parks used the James Farm rhythm section on his debut recording for Blue Note records, Invisible Cinema (2008).

James Farm released its self-titled debut album on Nonesuch to critical acclaim in 2011. “While some groups seem to star one particular player, James Farm has taken a collective approach that works wonderfully,” wrote the Huffington Post. “Each musician is both virtuoso and composer in his own right and they have subdued their own egos for the betterment of the musical message to great success.” The New York Times said the album was “a model of dazzling proficiency,” and NPR Music called it “taut and confident.” All About Jazz lauded the group as “an all-star quartet featuring four of the best players and improvisers in modern jazz. On top of their astonishing technique and raw style, there is a chemistry underlying it all that equals astonishing music.”