DARCY JAMES ARGUE SECRET SOCIETY
Kings Place; Friday 17th November 2017
Kings Place; Friday 17th November 2017
WINDS: Dave Pietro, Rob Wilkerson, Peter Hess, Lucas Pino, Carl Maraghi ; TRUMPETS: Jonathan Powell, Sam Hoyt, Matt Holman, Nadje Noordhuis , David Smith; TROMBONES: Mike Fahie, Ryan Keberle, Darius Christian Jones, Jennifer Wharton; RHYTHM: Sebastian Noelle, guitar; Adam Birnbaum, piano; Matt Clohesy, bass, Jared Schonig, drums
Darcy James Argue challenges preconceptions in many ways. His eighteen-piece group looks like a conventional big band but it is far from that. The music that was played ‘Real Enemies’ is about the way that paranoia is preferred to reality, how fear is used to drive political agendas.
The trumpet section started by turning their backs to the audience and blowing softly into the guts of the piano. There was a curious formality about the whole concert. The musicians dressed conventionally, they looked like a gathering of geography teachers. Argue conducted with very precise hand and arm movements and at one moment he turned to face the audience and simply stared for a time.
Kathryn Olmsted’s 2009 book Real Enemies supplied the title and the thinking behind the album: Real Enemies outlines how conspiratorial thinking can be a distinct political ideology. It was ironic that the concert took place in the building that houses the Guardian that published the Edward Snowden revelations. The whole work was overlaid with recorded spoken political commentary spun from figures like Kennedy, George Bush, and Dick Cheney threaded through the score. Actor James Urbaniak supplies extracts from the Real Enemies book.
Argue says: “Belief in conspiracies is one of the defining aspects of modern culture. It transcends political, economic, and other divides. Conservative or liberal, rich or poor, across all races and backgrounds there exists a conspiratorial strain of thought that believes there are forces secretly plotting against us. Conspiracy theories often take hold because they provide an explanation for disturbing realities. They tell a story about why the world is the way it is. Paradoxically, it’s often more comforting to believe that bad things happen because they are part of a hidden agenda than it is to believe that they came about as a result of mistakes, ineptitude, or random chance.”
Premiered in 2015 and recorded in 2016 the music is precise. Argue acknowledges his musical influences: Schoenberg and Milton Babbitt as well as the music score from ‘Klute’ the revolutionary songs of Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy and LA electro funk-influenced hip hop. The melange of all that produces jazz music that is dense complex thrilling and occasionally simple and sharp.
The writing of the music pre-figured Trump and fake news. The composition is more germane now that when it was written.
Some would argue that such overt political messages have no place in jazz; others would say that jazz has always been political. All you can say is that Darcy James Argue’s ‘Real Enemies’ has real music.
The studio recording of Real Enemies by Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society is available on the New Amsterdam label.
YouTube has a complete video of the work at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnyzVD2yEDw&t=120s
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Darcy James Argue challenges preconceptions in many ways. His eighteen-piece group looks like a conventional big band but it is far from that. The music that was played ‘Real Enemies’ is about the way that paranoia is preferred to reality, how fear is used to drive political agendas.
The trumpet section started by turning their backs to the audience and blowing softly into the guts of the piano. There was a curious formality about the whole concert. The musicians dressed conventionally, they looked like a gathering of geography teachers. Argue conducted with very precise hand and arm movements and at one moment he turned to face the audience and simply stared for a time.
Kathryn Olmsted’s 2009 book Real Enemies supplied the title and the thinking behind the album: Real Enemies outlines how conspiratorial thinking can be a distinct political ideology. It was ironic that the concert took place in the building that houses the Guardian that published the Edward Snowden revelations. The whole work was overlaid with recorded spoken political commentary spun from figures like Kennedy, George Bush, and Dick Cheney threaded through the score. Actor James Urbaniak supplies extracts from the Real Enemies book.
Argue says: “Belief in conspiracies is one of the defining aspects of modern culture. It transcends political, economic, and other divides. Conservative or liberal, rich or poor, across all races and backgrounds there exists a conspiratorial strain of thought that believes there are forces secretly plotting against us. Conspiracy theories often take hold because they provide an explanation for disturbing realities. They tell a story about why the world is the way it is. Paradoxically, it’s often more comforting to believe that bad things happen because they are part of a hidden agenda than it is to believe that they came about as a result of mistakes, ineptitude, or random chance.”
Premiered in 2015 and recorded in 2016 the music is precise. Argue acknowledges his musical influences: Schoenberg and Milton Babbitt as well as the music score from ‘Klute’ the revolutionary songs of Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy and LA electro funk-influenced hip hop. The melange of all that produces jazz music that is dense complex thrilling and occasionally simple and sharp.
The writing of the music pre-figured Trump and fake news. The composition is more germane now that when it was written.
Some would argue that such overt political messages have no place in jazz; others would say that jazz has always been political. All you can say is that Darcy James Argue’s ‘Real Enemies’ has real music.
The studio recording of Real Enemies by Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society is available on the New Amsterdam label.
YouTube has a complete video of the work at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnyzVD2yEDw&t=120s
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
