Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at The Jazz Gallery

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
Jazz Gallery
New York, NY
January 12, 2024

One of last year's most acclaimed jazz albums became an early contender for a standout show of 2024 when Darcy James Argue brought his 20-piece Secret Society to Manhattan's cozy Jazz Gallery to showcase Dynamic Maximum Tension. The hourlong New York performance was as original and delightfully unpredictable as everything the Canadian-born composer/conductor touches.

The recording—released in the fall, nominated for a Grammy and on Ludovico Granvassu's Garden of Jazzy Delights 2023 and Katchie Cartwright's Best Jazz Albums Of 2023 year-end lists—is no ordinary tribute to an artist's musical inspirations. To start, many or most of its pieces were inspired by non-musicians, from thinkers to poets to scientists.

At the Jazz Gallery, Argue's passion for these people—and his fertile intellect—came across in often-lengthy introductions to the pieces. Ahead of "Codebreaker," dedicated to the British World War II mathematician Alan Turing, he outlined Turing's heroic and tragic life, which ended in suicide after he was charged with homosexual activity—then a crime in the UK—and given estrogen in prison. Preceding "Your Enemies Are Asleep," a line from a 19th-century Ukrainian poem, he noted the title's terrible relevance to the country's current conflict, and dedicated the performance to "parents in Ukraine trying to keep their children safe." "Ebonite," Argue amusingly informed us, celebrates not a person but a substance—a "miraculous hard rubber," in Argue's words—that found its way into that most Canadian of items: the hockey puck.

"Ebonite" exemplified Argue's talent for brilliantly evoking his subjects through deft writing and clever allusions. The piece loped along in the rhythm of obscure Argentine chacarera folk music—the seeming connection between ebonite and the music being a huge rubber tree Argue saw in the heart of Buenos Aires. With equal slyness, "Codebreaker" rose to swaggering, brassy peaks before ending in sustained, pulsating musical figures that evoked the German Morse code transmissions that Turing and his team cracked.

In the middle of "Winged Beasts," dedicated to "my compositional mentor," the late Bob Brookmeyer, Argue shrunk the arrangement to bass Jorge Roeder, drums Jon Wikan, and trombone Ryan Keberle to tip his hat to Brookmeyer's trombone playing, which was as acclaimed as his composing and conducting chops.

The Brookmeyer inspiration makes sense. Argue follows the Missourian's legacy as a composer and arranger with respect for the big band tradition but also a drive to diversify it with eclectic and often unexpected flourishes from other genres.

Not every composition celebrated its subject. "Ferromagnetic," a piece in protest of American paramilitarist Erik Prince (a "right wing Forrest Gump," in Argue's words) exuded menace through Sebastian Noelle's electric guitar, which alternated between a creeping arpeggio and slashing chord outbursts.

For the encore. Argue plucked a beautifully constructed ballad from what he described as "a ton of unrecorded music." "Shift" floated gently on beds of brass and woodwinds, then pitted soaring brass solos against gorgeous ensemble climaxes before settling to earth again.

The show couldn't get to all the standout selections of the near-two-hour-long album; the MIA pieces included Argue's tender tributes to Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band, and Duke Ellington. It's an open question when New Yorkers might be able to hear more of the project in a return visit by the Secret Society, given Argue's ever-busier profile and schedule.

Case in point about that itinerary: In an interview before the show, Argue said he's had to bow out of a scheduled February conducting gig at the Manhattan School of Music, for a Wayne Shorter tribute. The reason is predictably impressive: he needs time to work on a new orchestral venture for Cecile McLorin Salvant, with whom he already collaborated on "Ogresse," a song cycle that tours Europe in March, 2024 with Argue leading the 10-piece band that backs Salvant.

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