Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Luis Godinho
Credit: Luis Godinho
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
Credit: Lindsay Beyerstein
The 50 Best Albums of 2023
“Dynamic Maximum Tension, his most expansive and ambitious statement with the band, practically explodes with big ideas […] a double album that reinvigorates the big-band tradition with a modern metabolism.”
THE BEST JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2023
“One of the era’s top big-band composers […] this, his fourth album, is his best to date: a work of stunning eclecticism and complexity, but thoroughly accessible, elastic with swing.”
12 Grammy Nominees You Need to Hear
“Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society is an 18-piece big band that stokes suspense with dissonance and pinpoint timing.”
Argue’s Secret Society produces “Maximum Tension” on a lively new album
“Listening to Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, I’m impressed by the music’s clarity, textural contrast, and shiny surfaces, his ingenuity and lively rhythms, impeccable ensemble playing, and fine soloists.”
UGLY BEAUTY: THE MONTH IN JAZZ
“Argue’s music shifts and whirls like an entire galaxy in orbit around itself, and it’s breathtaking to listen to.”
Darcy James Argue’s Walk Through History
“Like Buckminster Fuller’s geometric images, Argue’s streamlined use of space and motion (spinning horns, percussive thrust) incites the imagination.”
The Best Jazz on Bandcamp, September 2023
“There’s a legitimate argument to be made that no musician has had a greater influence on modern big band jazz than Darcy James Argue.”
5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right now
“Darcy James Argue is one of the great living composers for chamber orchestra.”
New Music
“Argue represents the very peak of innovative current big band possibilities…. This is seriously terrific jazz… an extraordinary album: one of the best of the year.”
★★★★★
Keith Black | Winnipeg Free Press
DYNAMIC MAXIMUM TENSION REVIEW
“Wildly inventive… Argue brings together a bevy of adept instrumentalists and improvisers to bring his rhythmically kinetic, harmonically vibrant works to life.”
★★★★★
Editors’ Picks
“Each track on this new double disc from Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society stands as a marvel of musical architecture, a self-contained miniverse populated by conspiring ensemble players and ace soloists.”
★★★★½
Ed Enwright | DownBeat
Music and Recording Review: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“This is unmistakably Argue, lush but not saccharine, complex but not pretentious, expansiveness and succinctness held in ideal balance.”
★★★★½
REVIEW: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“A heady elixir of the past, the present and an imagined future, it maintains a right to surprise. And does.”
★★★★
Album Review: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“From the tensile strength of the first chord of ‘Dymaxion’ to the dark growling power of ‘Ferromagnetic’ and the final word of ‘Mae West,‘ Dynamic Maximum Tension is a delight.”
★★★★
JAZZ COLLECTOR
“Superlative… brimming with a sonic invention that is redolent of Lalo Schifrin’s funky movie scores.”
★★★★
Album Review: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“A splendid example of Argue's creative abilities, Dynamic Maximum Tension has the merit of bringing together the different facets and expressive richness of his latest compositions.”
★★★★
Review: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“A rich mix of dark sax improv, punchy soaring-brass riffing and seductive Gil Evans-worthy high-reeds dreamscapes.”
Album REVIEW: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“Remarkable in its ambition, scope and sheer length, this is Argue’s crowning achievement to date.”
Darcy James Argue’s new album, Dynamic Maximum Tension
“Dynamic Maximum Tension was worth the wait. Despite its heady volume of historical information, it’s kinetic, gripping and modern — with a bounty of harmonic richness to boot.”
Jazz New Release Round-Up
“Its dynamic range and flavours are wonderfully interspersed, whilst Cécile McLorin Salvant’s appearance on closer ‘Mae West: Advice’ is a cheeky moment of pure bliss.”
Tension and release
“Outstanding album of completely modern music whose precision — whether of conception or execution — never excludes the human component.”