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
ARRANGER OF THE YEAR & TOP 10 JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR
“The composer and bandleader serves as one of the driving forces behind new generations of ambitious large ensemble instrumental music. Dynamic Maximum Tension serves as proof.”
ARRANGER OF THE YEAR
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.”
The 10 Best Jazz Albums Of 2023
“Simply some of the most exciting music being made right now. […] Argue’s music shifts and whirls like an entire galaxy in orbit around itself, and it’s breathtaking to listen to. I love this record.”
Standout jazz albums of 2023 came from rising young talents and legends alike
“It may be a stretch to say this Vancouver-bred composer and band leader has singlehandedly reinvented big-band music. But not by much, as this dazzling, unfailingly creative album vividly attests.”
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.”
The 17 Best Jazz Albums of 2023
“The title Dynamic Maximum Tension could be a review, as the music is in constant flux […] as different voices and sonorities weave, bob, and vie for attention. Argue has a crack band of long-standing and a sensibility that is his own. Every time he releases something new, ears should go on alert.”
The Best 30 Jazz Albums of 2023
“A celebration of big band magnificence, characterized by sterling layering taste, solid movements, and expertly seamless passages."
BEST SONGS OF 2023
“Mae West, the original bad bitch of Hollywood, is the inspiration for this lascivious big band number […]. Cécile McLorin Salvant purrs one-liners as Ingrid Jensen’s trumpet sashays over a lush arrangement.”
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.”
Ottawa Jazz Festival: First weekend featured joy-filled funk, esoteric sounds
“Friday’s fully packed studio show by Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society was as enthralling as it was fabulously complex […] a set of heady, sprawling compositions that, for all of their unexpected sounds, textures and intellectual rigor, connected with listeners. This is a brilliant and significant artist who is lighting the way for ambitious, large-scale jazz to come.”
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.”
★★★★★
December 2023 Jazz Record Reviews
“Argue's concept of big band jazz is extroverted, intricate, historically grounded, and forward-looking. He loves to unleash explosive forces. His band roars. […] one of the essential large ensemble jazz recordings of the new millennium.”
★★★★½
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
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.”