Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based composer Darcy James Argue leads Secret Society, an 18-piece band devoted to his original music. Ben Ratliff of the NYT has said somve very nice things about his music: "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."
In January 2008, Darcy created Secret Society's Canadian splinter cell, Secret Society North and took them on tour to Montreal and Toronto. (Yes, in January. IAJE was on, and the band played there.) In October 2006, he got to go to Germany and lead the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra in a program of his own music at Stadgarten. He's gotten commissions from the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra and BMI and the Brooklyn Museum's Music Off The Walls series, and
written arrangements for the Atlanta Symphony's concerts with Lizz Wright, Shelby Lynne, and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. (Three different concerts.)
Boring but obligatory list of grants and awards: Brooklyn Philharmonic Composer Mentorship Program, American Music Center CAP, Meet The Composer Creative Connections, BMI Charlie Parker Composition Prize, SOCAN Award for Composition, Down Beat Student Music Award, various Canada Council Grants.
Darcy graduated from McGill and New England Conservatory and he's studied with Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider, John Hollenbeck, Randy Woolf, Lee Hyla.
He is also the Keeper of the Blog for Pulse, so if you have any "technical" "issues" (or "whatnot"), talk to him.
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(click to listen, right-click/ctrl-click to download)
E Hastings - Darcy James Argue
No Punchline - Darcy James Argue
Spirit-Tapping - Darcy James Argue
Attracted To Light - Darcy James Argue (excerpt)
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