Artist: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
Album: Dynamic Maximum Tension
Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Modern Big Band
Label: Nonesuch
Released: 2023
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- CD 1:
- Dymaxion (7:04)
- All In (7:38)
- Ebonite (6:34)
- Last Waltz for Levon (6:54)
- Winged Beasts (13:42)
- Your Enemies Are Asleep (8:17)
- CD 2:
- Codebreaker (5:38)
- Ferromagnetic (9:16)
- Single-Cell Jitterbug (5:25)
- Tensile Curves (34:45)
- Mae West: Advice (feat. Cecile McLorin Salvant) (6:21)
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Brooklyn composer, conductor, and bandleader Darcy James Argue returns to his ambitious big band Secret Society with the group's wildly inventive, harmonically lush fourth album, 2023's Dynamic Maximum Tension. Initially marketed as a "steampunk" big band, Secret Society is essentially a sophisticated modern big band in the tradition of bandleaders like Gil Evans, Maria Schneider, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Stan Kenton, with a bit of John Zorn's avant-garde genre experimentalism underpinning their sound. Like those artists, Argue brings together a bevy of adept instrumentalists and improvisers to bring his rhythmically kinetic, harmonically vibrant works to life. Among Argue's ensemble this time out are trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, pianist Adam Birnbaum, trombonist Ryan Keberle, bassist Matt Clohesy, trumpeter Seneca Black, and many more. Conceptually, Dynamic Maximum Tension finds Argue exploring themes of futurism and technology and how the tension between the two can lead to a sense of dystopia. "Dymaxion" (a portmanteau of the album title) is the central track, where Argue builds dissonant tension between the reeds and brass instruments over a driving groove as baritone saxophonist Carl Maraghi dives into a roiling solo. Similarly, on the evocatively titled "Codebreaker," the low brass punches against sharp trumpet and sax lines. While Argue's work certainly draws deeply from the jazz tradition, there are other influences at play here. He pays homage to the country-influenced rock of Levon Helm and the Band on "Last Waltz for Levon," while "Ferromagnetic" showcases his love of bass-heavy funk and fusion and features an effects-laden solo from Jensen. More traditionally jazz in tone is the album closer "Mae West: Advice," in which Grammy-winning vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant comes on board to impart some of iconic actress Mae West's most famous sayings. Other richly attenuated jazz atmospheres pop up throughout, as on the bluesy "Your Enemies Are Asleep" and the shimmering and impressionistic "Tensile Strength." Try and imagine something along the lines of Gil Evans and Miles Davis exploring the cartoon music of Raymond Scott and Carl Stalling, and you'll get a bit of the wry, future-past energy Argue and Secret Society summon on Dynamic Maximum Tension.
Review by Matt Collar