Darcy James Argue

A rising bandleader on the New York jazz scene, Darcy James Argue directs Secret Society, a dynamic 18-piece band featuring his original works. The group includes fiery soloists like trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, saxophonist Erica vonKleist, and trombonist Ryan Keberle. Secret Society is a cutting-edge group, in the lineage of the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, but also evoking the cinematic sweep of indie bands like Tortoise and TV On The Radio, and the rogue spirit of DIY new music groups like Anti-Social Music. Secret Society have performed at a variety of NYC venues including The Jazz Gallery, Makor, Union Hall, Flux Factory, Bowery Poetry Club, and the late CBGB.

In January 2008, Argue led the band’s Canadian splinter cell, Secret Society North, in a tour which included a showcase at the prestigious IAJE Conference and performances in Montreal and Toronto. In October of 2006, he made his European debut, leading the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra in a concert of his music at the jazz.cologne festival. He is also a founding member of the New York composers’ federation Pulse, who have presented projects featuring John Abercrombie, John McNeil, and Pete McCann. The Los Angeles-based Symphonic Jazz Orchestra commissioned and premiered The Golden Age and recently recorded the work. Last year, Argue was selected for the Brooklyn Philharmonic Composer Mentorship Program, and composed Dean St. for the orchestra. His Body Double, for string quartet and tapan, will be premiered this April at the Music Off The Walls series at the Brooklyn Museum. He created the arrangements for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s concerts with jazz-soul songstress Lizz Wright, alt-country artist Shelby Lynne, and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Argue’s awards include the BMI Charlie Parker Composition Prize/Manny Albam Commission, the SOCAN Award for Composition, the Down Beat Student Music Award, and grants from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

In addition to his own groups, Argue’s music has been performed by the BMI New York Jazz Orchestra, the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the University of North Texas Jazz Repertory Ensemble, the NEC Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, the McGill Jazz Orchestra, and others.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Argue was mentored by legendary jazz composer Bob Brookmeyer. He has also studied with Lee Hyla, Randall Woolf, Maria Schneider, and John Hollenbeck. He maintains a lively blog, which features commentary, photos, and live recordings.

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Live Reviews

Chicago Jazz Festival 2018

CD/LP/Track Review

Real Enemies by Angelo Leonardi
Brooklyn Babylon by Luca Canini

General Articles

I Nuovi Protagonisti dell'Orchestrazione - 1: Darcy James Argue - Ryan...

CD/LP/Track Review

Brooklyn Babylon by Karl Ackermann
Infernal Machines by Karl Ackermann

“Infernal Machines stands defiant, updating the big band tradition for the new millennium while presenting exciting possibilities for the future.” —Troy Collins, All About Jazz

“A big, broad musical vocabulary came together easily, without jump-cutting or wrenching shifts of style. Mr. Argue made all these elements belong together naturally.”

—Ben Ratliff, New York Times

“Clearly some of the most ambitious and compelling sounds I've ever encountered in the past 40 years.”

—Juan Rodriguez, Montreal Gazette

“Infernal Machines stands defiant, updating the big band tradition for the new millennium while presenting exciting possibilities for the future.” —Troy Collins, All About Jazz

“A big, broad musical vocabulary came together easily, without jump-cutting or wrenching shifts of style. Mr. Argue made all these elements belong together naturally.”

—Ben Ratliff, New York Times

“Clearly some of the most ambitious and compelling sounds I've ever encountered in the past 40 years.”

—Juan Rodriguez, Montreal Gazette

“The music was full of large-scale, intricate designs [...] built on some of the best lessons of Charles Mingus and Bob Brookmeyer, not only in harmony and structure but also in momentum, in moving a piece forward. [...]. A big, broad musical vocabulary came together easily, without jump-cutting or wrenching shifts of style. Mr. Argue made all these elements belong together naturally.”

—Ben Ratliff, New York Times

“This powerful and well-stocked ensemble juxtaposes postwar big-band conventions with ideas borrowed from indie rock, classical Minimalism, and a handful of other idiomatic regions. The results are well worth hearing.”

—Nate Chinen, New York Times

“Clearly some of the most ambitious and compelling sounds I've ever encountered in the past 40 years.”

—Juan Rodriguez, Montreal Gazette

“Inspiring.”

—Ethan Iverson, pianist, The Bad Plus

“It was like hearing Duke Ellington and minimalism and Tortoise and Funkadelic and Elliott Carter and much else besides melding into one floating, shifting, dodging music.”

—Carl Wilson, zoilus.com

“Darcy James Argue is a bright young mind in jazz.”

—Josh Jackson, WBGO Radio

“Lucky for us, there's always been a handful of artists willing to tilt at windmills, intoxicated by a large ensemble's broad palette and dynamic heft. The latest leader to create a stir downtown is Darcy James Argue.”

—Steve Smith, Time Out New York

“Darcy James Argue's music delights in the anachronism of the big band in a post-punk musical environment.”

—Frank J. Oteri, New Music Box

“A talent of the first order, already on a par with his mentors Maria Schneider and John Hollenbeck.”

—Peter Matthews, Feast Of Music

“When you listen to the music you are transported to a sinister yet beautiful world, a past that never was.”

—Magpie Killjoy, Steampunk Magazine

“Sam Sadigursky blew a passionate solo over a rhythm section that has become scarily good; the climax captured the cinematic sweep of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, all sunburst, breeze and melting joy.

“Argue's charts are smart and tuneful, tough on players, and incredibly gracious to listeners. And some bright publisher should be pushing his compositions to college jazz bands—hard. I know I'd have killed to play music like this.”

—Steve Smith, Night After Night

“Darcy James Argue's big band skillfully realizes the leader's mature, emotive compositions and thick arrangements.”

—Hank Shteamer, Time Out New York

“Darcy James Argue has developed an experimental yet accessible voice as a composer. His gifts are outstanding.”

—Bob Brookmeyer, composer

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