Photo Lindsay Beyerstein
Darcy James Argue - Conductor, Composer
WINDS:
Dave Pietro
Alejandro Aviles
Sam Sadigursky (Sept. 13–14, 16); John Lowery (Sept. 15)
John Ellis
Carl Maraghi
TRUMPETS:
Seneca Black
Chloe Rowlands
Matt Holman (Sept. 13–14); David Adewumi (Sept. 15–16)
Nadje Noordhuis
David Smith (Sept. 13); Ingrid Jensen (Sept. 14–16)
TROMBONES:
Mike Fahie
Ryan Keberle
Jacob Garchik
Jeff Nelson
RHYTHM:
Sebastian Noelle -guitar
Adam Birnbaum -piano
Matt Clohesy -bass
Jon Wikan -drums
SPECIAL GUESTS:
VIOLIN: Meg Okura (Sept. 13); Sara Caswell (Sept. 14–16)
VOICE: Ekep Nkwelle (Sept. 13–15, 9:30 PM set)
“Argue’s calling card thus far has been an ability to combine his love of jazz’s past with more contemporary sonics… He’s clever without being arch, a syncretic creator who avoids obvious imitation.” — Pitchfork
Composer-bandleader Darcy James Argue and his 18-piece bigband Secret Society celebrate the release of their Nonesuch Records debut, Dynamic Maximum Tension, with a four night run at The Jazz Gallery, from September 13-16.
The album pays homage to some of Argue’s key influences with original compositions dedicated to Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West, and a long-form response to Duke Ellington’s “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” titled “Tensile Curves.”
Argue says of his inspiration for the music: “It feels like our culture today is headed in a profoundly dystopian direction. By engaging with figures like Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West, I was trying to connect to a more optimistic time, trying to reclaim a sense of agency, trying to rekindle my faith in our ability to grab the future and shape it ourselves.”
Darcy James Argue, “one of the top big band composers of our time” (Stereophile), is best known for Secret Society, an eighteen-piece group “renowned in the jazz world” (New York Times). Argue brings an outwardly anachronistic ensemble into the 21st century through his “ability to combine his love of jazz’s past with more contemporary sonics” and is celebrated as “a syncretic creator who avoids obvious imitation” (Pitchfork).
Acclaimed as an “innovative composer, arranger, and big band leader” by the New Yorker, Argue’s accolades include multiple GRAMMY nominations and a Latin GRAMMY Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and countless commissions and fellowships. His prescient 2016 Real Enemies, an album-length exploration of the politics of paranoia, was named one of the twenty best jazz albums of the decade by Stereogum.
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