Secret Society

NEXT GIG

15 JULY 2009

LE POISSON ROUGE

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Got to be real if you want to hear

Matt Rubin, co-proprietor of the newish blog Twenty Dollars, breaks out the lead pipes and blowtorches with a post called Why I Hate Big Band Music. I am, ironically, too busy to respond at the moment because I'm writing liner notes¹ for an upcoming bigband record by a certain notoriously prolific trumpeter and composer. But Matt's piece is certainly worth reading. I have definite qualms about Matt's diagnosis -- if the problem with bigband music is the fetishization of "precision" above all else, then citing Maria Schneider's fearsomely precise group as the antithesis of that does not really ring true. (Gil's band in the 1980's -- okay. Maria's band in the 2000's -- fuggedaboudit.) And you will have to take my word for it that any rumors of rampant selflessness and/or ego-abnegation amongst bigband musicians are not true. Still, I encourage y'all to take a bit of time out from celebrating America's greatness by blowing shit up, and go read Matt's post.

Speaking of Maria Schneider's band, I don't think I've ever seen a more naked attempt to smack down a successful female artist and put her in her place (at least, not in living memory) than this review on the Montreal Gazette's blog. It's got everything, really -- including comparing her looks (unfavorably) to the Last Tango in Paris actress, a complaint that it was "creepy" seeing so many "steely, blond" middle-aged women in the audience, and the literally incredible allegation that Maria's body language was "stiff." Dude -- my body language is stiff. I am (and this is putting it extremely charitably) a utilitarian conductor. When I get in front of a band, my goal is to beat clear, unambiguous time that doesn't rush or drag, and to give cues that actually do more good than harm. I am sorry to say that even this level of basic adequacy is unusual enough that I get compliments about my conducting from players. Maria's skill and expressivity as a conductor is clearly so far beyond this -- so far beyond anyone else in jazz -- that it's not even worth having a conversation about it, except to note that if this is stiff, then the rest of us make Peter Boyle look like Fred Astaire.

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1. For our younger readers: "liner notes" were written descriptions of, or essays about, the music contained on a particular album^a, which were included as part of the packaging for said album.

a. "Albums" were compilations of songs or other musical works that were collected on physical media (such as vinyl, cassettes, or compact discs), intended to be listened to without interruption in a specific predetermined sequence. At one point, people were willing to pay up to the equivalent of three (sometimes even four) Starbucks beverages in exchange for them.

Happy Canada Day

Here's some Kenny Wheeler:

RIP MJ

This Jackson 5 cover of "I Was Made To Love Her" (recorded 1973) is unbelievably audacious. Michael sets out to out-Stevie Stevie, on Stevie's own signature song, and actually succeeds.

When I was growing up, "Michael Jackson Sucks" t-shirts were popular amongst a certain segment of the childhood population. I remember feeling sorry for those kids, for having already developed such terrible taste at such a tender age.

Quincy Jones famously attributed Michael's enormous success to his "ass power":

At one point I asked Q what separated the great stars from the near greats he'd worked with. "Ass power" was his reply. To illustrate his point, Q compared Michael Jackson to another well-known vocalist he'd produced. The other singer, an artist with an immense voice and an insatiable appetite for cocaine, would come to the studio, maybe lay down a scratch vocal, and then wander off for hours. Jackson, in contrast, would come to the studio, record a strong lead vocal, work the stacked harmonies that distinguished his work, and practice where to place those ad-libs that were his trademark.

"His ass power," Q said, "would keep him in the studio until he felt he'd accomplished something that day. That ability to focus, to stay in that chair in the studio, listening to playback and then going back in to record some more -- that's what separates the good from the great."

(From City Kid: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success by Nelson George)

I realize it is futile to hope that Michael Jackson will be remembered primarily for his brilliance as a musician. But now that he's gone (it seems unbelievable), it's up to those of us who care about music to focus on MJ's formidable artistic legacy.

If I could just purge all the urges that I have

My RSS Reader readers¹ won't notice a difference, but I have finally cleaned up the sprawling, embarrassingly out-of-date right-hand column and updated the Secret Society blogroll. I am not sure anyone ever looks at (let alone clicks through to) blogroll links anymore, but people have been politely requesting that I update mine for literally years now, and I have finally been shamed into actually doing something about it. I removed inactive blogs and blogs I don't read anymore and all blogs that feature that damnable light text on a dark background.² Oh, and I also folded the "musician blogs" and "non-musician blogs" into a single category. We Are One, just like in the CK ad.

Most of the additions are new-ish blogs I've probably mentioned in this space before -- Nate Chinen's The Gig, NPR's A Blog Supreme, Fred Kaplan's Stereophile blog (which I include despite major reservations about its pitiful excuse for an RSS feed),  Molly Sheridan's Mind The Gap, Marc Myers's JazzWax, Peter Hum's Jazzblog.ca -- formerly known as Thriving on a Riff -- or embarrassing omissions I should have corrected a long time ago -- most egregiously, Doug Ramsey's Rifftides. 

However, a few of these recent additions could benefit from a more extensive introduction. Please welcome:

Createquity, one of the few blogs out there devoted to arts policy and economic issues. It's also written by an actual artist: singer, composer, and Capital M honcho Ian David Moss, who has recently graduated from the Yale School of Management. He's still keeping it real, though -- check out this recent post on "sustainability." No, don't go check your Twitter feed instead -- trust me, it can wait. This shit's important, and Ian makes it engaging, accessible, and provocative.

Jason Palmer's Blog -- Jason is a fantastic and in-demand trumpet player (and now indie film star). I know Jason from our mutual NEC years -- he played on the original versions of "Lizard Brain," "Chrysalis," and "Flux in a Box" -- so it is great to see him throw himself headlong into the blogosphere, despite his already full plate of teaching and musical commitments. Jason was among the winners of the Bad Plus Blog Competition, for this heartwarming post.

The Big City, composer George Grella's omnivorous music-in-NYC blog. Anyone who can write with insight and authority about Alas No Axis, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, my NewAm colleagues Missy Mazzoli and William Britelle, and the recent Boulez/Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin Mahler marathon is okay in my book. And, yes, I would totally be saying that even if Grella hadn't given us this far-too-generous writeup.

Music and More, Tim Niland's record-review-centric blog. He's been at it since 2003 but his blog is new to me, and maybe new to you? This species of blogging is time-consuming and mostly thankless, but when done well, it's invaluable.

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1. If you are new to RSS (and you use a Mac), I recommend NetNewsWire. It's free and it's way better than Google Reader.

2. Exceptions were made for Kris Tiner and Hank Shteamer, but c'mon, guys.... a disturbing number of entrants in the Bad Plus Blog Competition also inexplicably use that heinous, unreadable color scheme. Listen, kids: just say "no" to shitty blog templates. I can't process your brilliant blogospheric pronouncements if your light-on-dark text is burning holes in my corneas.

Don't start me talking I could talk all night

Two essential new interviews:

Ethan Iverson unleashes another epic conversation, this one with Tim Berne:

Intro
Part One
Part Two

A taste:

EI: You are a pretty rare example of someone who isn’t playing music already as a teenager but then has the willpower - because of a love of the music - to like really devote yourself to it, a bit on the late side, and then turn it around. In a few years you’ve made your first record and you’ve got your own voice coming.

TB: Yeah I was pretty strong-willed. I don’t know what possessed me. When I look back on it, it seems incredible, especially considering my overall lack of confidence. The more I learned, the less confident I felt. I would take these jazz lessons and stuff, but I didn’t really ever do sideman stuff. I think the first thing I ever did as a sideman could’ve been the Mark Helias record Split Image, where I played with Dewey Redman for a couple of tunes.

That was amazing. Mark might have given Dewey the music but I seriously doubt he looked at it. He came in from a gallery show, where he’d been drinking some wine. He’s kind of laughing and screwing around. And I’m paralyzed with fear. Not even just about him, but just recording a record in a studio. Somebody else’s music, some of the tunes have changes, you know I’m just mortified I’m gonna fuck up. And, uh, then Dewey just shows up and we play this thing and it’s like "boom." We’re playing this tango of Mark’s, and playing it “correctly” and all this, and Dewey comes in... his solo’s killing. And then we play the other tune he’s on, and it’s the same thing. He’s not nailing the music, but all of a sudden it has a vibe. It’s like this guy is a pro in the best sense of the word. This guy’s been around the block! He just knows how to cut to the music. Get to the music quickly. You put up all these blocks: “I can’t do this, I can’t do that.” I was just fighting myself on every issue. “I’m not as good as these guys,” or whatever. All that shit’s spinning out of control in my brain. And this guy’s coming in like “I’m Dewey Redman. I play the saxophone. It’s just music. I’m gonna play some music.” He wasn’t worried about somebody saying he fucked up letter B or whatever -- and if they had, he would’ve done it again, of course. But on the improvised stuff he just sort of killed it.

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Ethan is famous for his extended interviews, but Marc Myers of JazzWax is giving him a run for his money. This week he is publishing his 5-part(!) interview with my mentor, Bob Brookmeyer, and it is riveting. There is a lot of stuff in here I didn't know!

So far, only the first two parts are up... parts 3-5 coming later this the week. I will update the links as needed.

Part One
Part Two

A sample:

JW: How did you come to play the valve-trombone?
BB: The stories about me starting to play it cold with Claude Thornhill’s band are wrong [laughs]. Yeah, right, I just walked into Thornhill’s band, picked up the valve-trombone and started to play it. The truth is I started playing the instrument when I was 13. I didn’t want to play slide trombone, so I found some old baritone horn in the band room and learned to play the valves. Then friends gave me an old Czechoslovakian valve-trombone. I learned to play the instrument by watching trumpet players.

JW: Why didn’t you like the slide trombone?
BB: Who likes the slide trombone? Sax players got all the girls because they were seated in the front row. Trumpeters got all the money because they were driving the band from the back row. Trombones sit in the middle and develop an interior life [laughs]. Trombonists didn’t get the money or the girls.

Countdown To Ecstasy

Dave Douglas's Brass Ecstasy -- a postmodern take on the New Orleans street band, via Lester Bowie -- plays live at Fern Bar HQ in about 20 minutes (3 PM EST), and there is a video stream. They band includes Vincent Chancey (horn), Luis Bonilla (trombone), Marcus Rojas (tuba), and Nasheet Waits (drums) -- I caught them this Saturday at Jazz Standard and the group is killing (Marcus Rojas is literally unstoppable), so I definitely recommend tuning in. The band has a new record out, too, which like all Greenleaf releases, can be streamed in its entirety.

(Summer of the) Year of Glad

Infinite Summer has begun.

I will be reading Infinite Jest for the third time. Here's why.

And also: my consumption of pixels-on-a-screen has been vastly outstripping my consumption of ink-on-cellulose-pulp for many years now. I have mixed feelings about this, but it seems healthier to start getting a larger dose of the latter in my life.

But, my comrades-in-Jest, before you exit the Information Superhighway you might want to take a look at the 10th Anniversary Edition Foreward by Dave Eggers:

In recent years, there have been a few literary dustups — how insane is it that such a thing exists in a world at war? — about readability in contemporary fiction. In essence, there are some people who feel that fiction should be easy to read, that it’s a popular medium that should communicate on a somewhat conversational wavelength. On the other hand, there are those who feel that fiction can be challenging, generally and thematically, and even on a sentence-by-sentence basis — that it’s okay if a person needs to work a bit while reading, for the rewards can be that much greater when one’s mind has been exercised and thus (presumably) expanded.

Much in the way that would-be civilized debates are polarized by extreme thinkers on either side, this debate has been made to seem like an either/or proposition, that the world has room for only one kind of fiction, and that the other kind should be banned and its proponents hunted down and, why not, dismembered.

Like the FSM, the Complexity Wars are everywhere.

RIP Charlie Mariano

(Photo: Paul G. Deker)

"At this moment I'd like to pause for station identification. Station SOUL and LOVE. Charles Mariano, lead alto and alto solos."

This is Mingus, in his liner notes to The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Mariano is the leadoff soloist, and sets up the entire record with his open, heartrending sound -- you all know the moment:

MP3: Track A - Solo Dancer (Stop! Look! And Listen, Sinner Jim Whitney!) (excerpt)

Mariano's playing is all over The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady and it is glorious. Especially his blazing extended solo on "Track C - Group Dancers - (Soul Fusion) Freewoman and Oh, This Freedom's Slave Cries." This record is justifiably beloved -- it's some of the most amazing music ever recorded, and it's unimaginable without Charlie Mariano.

Other places:

Ethan Iverson (Do The Math) highlights a lesser-known Mariano session.
Carl Abernathy (Cahl's Juke Joint) gives The Toshiko Mariano Quartet some love.
David Valdez (Casa Valdez Studios) posts a rare collection of Mariano compositions from the 1960's.
Michael Carlson (Irresistable Targets) has some invaluable info about Mariano's European years.
John Dilberto's reminiscence at Echoes is interesting (a ski mask? Really?) but his lede undersells Mariano considerably: "a second tier bop saxophonist"? You'd find an awful lot of alto players who'd take serious objection to that characterization!
Peter Hum (jazzblog.ca)
Boston Globe (Joan Anderman)

Charlie Mariano Tribute Page

Matana Roberts' Illumination @ Roulette

Matana Roberts took a furlough from her long-running, ongoing blood narrative Coin Coin to present some new music at Roulette last night -- a suite called "New York Stories," performed by Roberts, Vijay Iyer (piano), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Damion Reid (drums). (Tenor saxophonist JD Allen was also on the bill but could not appear due to a last-minute tour conflict.) The music sounds patient, varied, organically freeflowing with plenty of room to breathe... but achieving that effect in a musically satisfying way usually takes a bit of work.

What separates Matana from a lot of her peers -- beyond her balls-to-the-wall commitment, a virtue which is already far-too-scarse -- is her attention to shaping the details of her music in the service of a larger structure. Those details may be fairly loosely specified, but they are specified. I stole a few quick glances at the written parts for "New York Stories" after the gig -- there's a lot of graphic notation involved, with glyphs for "density w/space," "non-tonal texture," "lock in," etc., as well as passages of notated music that can be read in the clef of the player's choice. (Which in this context is realistically going to be either treble or bass -- jazz musicians don't really rock the C-clefs.) There's also an overall structural plan for the piece, with many repeated and cued sections mapped out in advance.

The music included a lot of satisfying timbral variety: the full ensemble was deployed sparingly, and there were many stripped-down moments -- solos, duos, and trios in various instrumental configurations. These were (subtly) cued on the fly by the composer. The upshot is that the judicious deployment of all of these techniques affords Matana the ability to exert ownership over this music. This isn't to denigrate the sensitive, spontaneous interplay amongst all of these great improvising musicians -- but Matana's "New York Stories" are clearly her own.

More photos below the fold...

She loves a crowd, that's what I hear

(Photo: Nicken05)

SECRET SOCIETY
MOERS FESTVIAL
31 MAY 2009

SETLIST
(click to listen; right-click/ctrl-click to download)

1) MP3: Phobos
Solos: Jon Wikan, cajon; Mark Small, tenor sax

2) MP3: Zeno
Solo: Ryan Keberle, trombone

3) MP3: Redeye
Solo: Sebastian Noelle, guitar

4) MP3: Obsidian Flow
Solo: Erica vonKleist, alto sax

5) ENCORE - MP3: Transit
Solo: Ingrid Jensen, trumpet

DOWNLOAD ALL (ZIP ARCHIVE)

More photos from Moers...

CO-CONSPIRATORS
WINDS
Erica vonKleist
Rob Wilkerson
Sam Sadigursky
Mark Small
Josh Sinton

TRUMPETS
Seneca Black
Tom Goehring
Matt Holman
Nadje Noordhuis
Ingrid Jensen

TROMBONES
Mike Fahie
Ryan Keberle
James Hirschfeld
Jennifer Wharton

RHYTHM
Sebastian Noelle, guitar
Mike Holober, piano & electric piano
Matt Clohesy, contrabass & electric bass
Jon Wikan, drums & percussion

COMPOSER - CONDUCTOR - RINGLEADER
Darcy James Argue

Deepest thanks to WDR 3, Bernd Hoffmann (producer), Georg Niehusmann (recording supervisor), Rolf Lingenberg & Ron Ruiten (sound engineers), and everyone at the Moers Festival for making this recording possible.

As always, if you enjoy, please consider making a donation:

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Darcy James Argue's Secret Society is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Now if you ain't runnin you ain't handicappin your vision

Milford Graves Quartet

Saw the Vision Festival in their new digs at the Abrons Arts Center on Saturday. Abrons is a real theatre, so the acoustics are much improved from the beautiful-but-cavernous Angel Orensanz Foundation (which is still ground zero for the VF's final night tonight). Unfortunately, the amplified sound was a wee bit... over-enthusiastic, let's say, and the piano especially suffered from persistent, piercing brightness. This was a shame as the evening featured some real masters of modern improvised pianism, beginning with a dazzling, tightly focused solo set by Matthew Shipp.

Alto saxophonist Rob Brown followed up, in a kinetic bass-less trio with Craig Taborn and Nasheet Waits -- the unbelievably intense sparks generated between piano and drums contrasting sharply with the leader's more cerebral, floating approach. (I recommend you fire up the wayback machine and check out Ben Ratliff's now 10-year old profile of five up-and-coming NYC drummers, including Nasheet.)

The next drummer, Milford Graves, has a few years on Waits. Graves is probably best known for his contributions to the New York Art Quartet back in the 1960s, but he has been active since then as both player and educator (he's a longtime faculty member at Bennington). He began his set offstage with a plaintive chanting-and-talking-drum incantation, before making his way behind an impressively expanded drum kit. Graves invited his collaborators to the stage one by one -- pianist D.D. Jackson, bassist and festival honcho William Parker, and young DC-based tenor saxophonist Grant Langford -- who is, I presume, the first active member of the Airmen of Note to ever perform at the Vision Fest. I am not sure this diverse group of personalities, brought together here for the first time, ever quite gelled as a unit (except Graves and Parker, who have an undeniable hookup), but Graves certainly proved his free-flowing energies remain undiminished by age.

I did not catch singer/pianist Lisa Sokolov's set, but I made it back in time for the Stateside premiere of Boston bassist (and guitarist, though he played only bass in this band) Joe Morris's "GoGo Mambo." This band is a tribute to original Mambo king Pérez Prado -- the free-blowing horns (notably Tony Malaby on tenor sax and Bill Lowe on trombone) over straight-up Afro-Cuban grooves reminded me a bit of some of Don Byron's projects, especially Music for Six Musicians. I especially enjoyed the interplay between Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng on congas and Willie Martinez on timbales -- it made for a fun and satisfyingly earthy close to a night that otherwise embraced a more abstracted rhythmic perspective.

* * *

The next day, I hit Search and Restore's festival-within-a-festival at Public Assembly (AKA "the old Galapagos"), stupidly leaving my camera battery in its charging cradle. Urg. Anyway, I was definitely impressed with the healthy Sunday afternoon turnout, and more impressed still by the rapt attention paid to Steve Coleman's austerely intimate music -- the curious quartet of Coleman's alto sax, Jonathan Finlayson's trumpet, Jen Shyu's voice, and Miles Okazaki's guitar made some of the most beautiful and unusual "chamber jazz" I have heard in a good long time. I'd never experienced Coleman's music without a rhythm section before. In a situation like that, everyone's personal responsibility for the time ramps up dramatically, but Steve's command of rhythm is, of course, legendary, and it was quite something to hear him and his cohorts put it all out there for an extended spell. I really enjoyed everything I heard at Public Assembly -- Ken Thompson's ambitious new compositions, Kneebody's groove-drenched electrojazz, and the life-affirming energy of Andrew D'Angelo's Gay Disco trio -- but Steve Coleman's set revealed facets of his artistry I hadn't previously appreciated.

Vision Fest photos are below the fold.

Another gig and another guilder

Let me be the latest to welcome NYT stringer and JazzTimes exile Nate Chinen to the Fraternal Order of Jazzbloggers. His new blog, The Gig, has been officially unveiled and already has some killer content -- the audio interview with Grizzly Bear bassist and former Branford Marsalis student Chris Taylor (no, really), in which Taylor talks about the influence of Ahmad Jamal on the band's latest, Veckatimest (no, really) is a must-read. Kudos to Nate for catching the Vernell Fournier-inspired off-beat ride cymbal beat on "Southern Point." He also reports on the ongoing mustache-growing competition between Andrew D'Angelo and Bill McHenry, and oh yeah, Brad Meldhau's special guest appearance with McHenry's quartet at the Vanguard last night, which marks what is, improbably, the first-ever musical encounter between Meldhau and Paul Motian.

It always seemed to me Nate's naturally casual, vivid, engaging style sometimes gets a bit dampened down by the Professional Voice requirements of Major Publications, so I am glad Nate has decided to hang up his own shingle and begin dispensing the unfiltered stuff. I am sure this newfound liberation totally makes up for the loss of a regular paycheck from JazzTimes.

In other news, Nate recently interviewed me for the BBC's Jazz on 3. Said interview is airing tonight at 11:15 PM GMT (i.e., 6:15 PM EST). The show will be streaming thereafter for a week.

UPDATE: Listen here -- my interview segment begins 1:27:00.

Rome is burning you can taste the embers

OMG you guys did you hear JazzTimes is going under? I can't believe no one in the blogosphere is talking about it!

Kidding, of course. In the event that rock you've been under has been feeling really, really comfy... rumors of financial troubles at "the other jazz magazine" began last week on Howard Mandel's blog and were confirmed on Monday when the magazine's management posted a brief note acknowledging that they had ceased (sorry, "temporarily" "suspended") publication and laid off all of their staff. Apparently they are also not planning on paying the money they owe freelancers for previous assignments (i.e., work that has already been published), which totally bites. Howard also wonders aloud if the unsurprising but depressing demise of New York's JVC Jazz Festival was the final nail in the JazzTimes coffin -- his inside baseball perspective about "advertorial supplements" gives a slightly surreal look behind the curtain of the jazz publication industry.

There is a tendency in jazz, as in all fringe endeavors, to make the perfect the enemy of the good. "The politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small," etc. And so while I certainly understand the schadenfreude felt by those who take a grim satisfaction in seeing the former pillars of the jazz establishment immolate in such spectacular fashion, it does seem to me that it's a whole lot easier to attempt to reform the jazz-industrial complex while some of it is still left standing. "Burn it to the ground and start over" is a fun notion to entertain, but as a viable growth strategy it leaves a little something to be desired. Also, as David Adler points out, the lazy jab at "NPR fern bar jazz" seems particularly out of step with the times, although it's nice they have a sense of humor about it. (I am not sure what species of mutant space-fern you'd need to domesticate a front line that includes Bill McHenry and Andrew D'Angelo.)

On the other hand, William Parker can be justifiably proud of what he and his wife Patricia have built with the Vision Festival, now in its 14th year and still going strong. This year's Vision Fest kicked off on Tuesday -- Magnet Magazine has a great writeup of opening night. It's also nice to see some love for the VF over at Brooklyn Vegan. (The BV commenters also inevitably bring the snark, but that is all part of the love. Really.) The festival runs through June 15 -- I'm going to try to make it down on Saturday night.

But on Sunday afternoon, I'll be heading up to the Northside Festival -- specifically, Public Assembly, where the Search and Restore crew have stealthily inserted a slice of fresh new jazz into an event otherwise dominated by indie rock. Starting at 2 PM, S&R will be presenting the awesome quad-bill of Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Andrew D'Angelo's Gay Disco Trio, Ken Thompson's Slow/Fast, and Kneebody. This is the way of the future, I think... if our own institutions are crumbling, we might as well infiltrate someone else's.

Also, a reminder that Infinite Summer is just 10 days away. Have you secured your copy yet? How about your t-shirt?

Must've missed the sign that said it was a fire sale

Please be advised that the fabulously stylish and highly desirable Secret Society T-Shirts are almost completely sold out. Our friends at Hemlock Ink will be silkcreening a new batch for us shortly, but meanwhile, we are blowing out our remaining inventory for a mere $10 each. These freshly discounted shirts are available in any size you want, provided it is S. I would like them out of my apartment and into your wardrobes, please.

"Act now," "while quantities last," "limited-time offer" -- I sense you have heard these words before. But hark, is that summer I spy, just around the corner? Do you really want to be caught without a fashionable and lightweight garment which proclaims your allegiance to the Society?

Road Shots Part Three - May 30-June 1

Moers Big Top skylight

Well now... this final tourblogging installment is rather embarrassingly tardy, i'n't?

In my defense, I've been pretty severely under the weather ever since returning from Europe. I only just barely held it together for our gig in Philly last Friday, and after that I basically spent the entire weekend in bed, alternating long passages of faint moaning with occasional percussive hacking-up-a-lung interludes. I even had to miss out on David Byrne in Prospect Park last night -- godfuckingdammit. At least I managed to recuperate enough to go catch Sherisse Rogers's Project Uprising at the Jazz Gallery. (She's there again tonight. Go.)

So anyway, where were we... oh, yes. The morning of Saturday, May 30, the band finally gets to sleep in... except for the, ah, chosen ones who were drafted into the Moers Morning Improv sessions. These are actually a pretty cool idea, they are run by German saxophonist Angelika Niescier, and they present an opportunity for the various musicians who come from all over to perform at Moers to play some unscripted music together. I talked to the Society co-conspirators afterwards and they all seemed to really enjoy it -- I think it made a nice diversion from playing all my hairy anal-retentive stuff.

In the early afternoon, there was a tour of Moers castle, conducted by a lady in period costume. But she was not about to be left alone in her fancy garb -- she quickly drafted some co-conspirators into putting on some specialized headwear as well (see below). A whirlwind tour of the town followed, including a brief visit with Moers' Improviser-in-Residence -- yes, this is a real position! Endowed by the city! It comes with an actual residence!

The Moers Festival grounds themselves are a trip. If you don't know the deal at Moers, it is basically like Coachella, except it's not in the middle of the fucking desert. Also, the music skews significantly more towards left field. And they've been doing it for 38 years now. 

People show up from all over Europe and camp out in the park for days. Some of them don't even buy tickets to the show, they just come for the hang. The venue is a straight-up, old-school circus Big Top -- reputed to be Europe's Biggest, with a capacity of 2500 people, almost all of them hardcore creative music fans. Remarkable balance of young and old, male and female -- and everyone is really vocal about what they like, and what they don't.

Our own turn under the Big Top came on Sunday, May 31. We had two particularly tough acts to follow -- Colin Stetson practically brought down the tent with his insane set of solo saxophone pieces. I say this knowing you will not believe me when I tell you that 2500 people completely lost their shit for unaccompanied bass saxophone, but they totally did. (He also played tunes on alto sax and clarinet.) Colin has apparently being performing this same incredibly grueling set opening up for The National, so he's used to winning over large crowds, but I doubt they gave him anything like the reception he had in Moers. After hearing the first piece, a dizzying display of circular breathing and extended technique -- "Hrm, I wonder what pedals he's using? Oh, wait, he isn't using any pedals... " -- it seemed hard to believe he had enough in him for another tune, let alone a complete set. But the thing is, they were actual tunes that Colin played, and good ones too -- not just free-associative freakouts -- which helped elevate the set far beyond "mere" jaw-dropping technical display.

After Colin came Guillermo Klein y Los Gauchos, who just wrapped up a post-Moers run at the Vanguard. This band is great, one of my favorite working groups in jazz, but I regrettably did not catch more than a couple of minutes of their set because I was frantically busy planning the tech for our own show. Moers runs on a tight schedule, and normally there isn't time for a soundcheck, just a brief line check -- "Mics working? Yes? Okay, let's hope for the best -- go!" This would have been disastrous for a band like ours, especially since we couldn't afford to bring our own sound tech along on tour. Fortunately, there was a brief dinner break scheduled between Guillermo's set and ours, giving us just enough time to actually check the sound. (It makes a difference, people.) 

We are also massively grateful to the Bimhuis's sound tech, Ron Ruiten, who happened to be attending Moers as a civilian. Ron volunteered to help with the sound for our show, which is just a staggeringly generous thing to do on your day off, and hugely helpful since Ron had already heard our music in a (much) smaller space a few days earlier, and therefore knows how it is supposed to sound.

Our Moers Festival hit was an order of magnitude more people than we have ever played for before. Here is what it looked like from the stage after we were done (courtesy of Jen Wharton):

The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger called our performance "one of the highlights of the 38th Moers Festival." What can I say? It was an unbelievable honor for us to play.

I did get a recording -- haven't listened to it yet but if the sound is okay, I'll put it up in the next few days.

Final batch of pics below the fold -- also check out Jen's Flickr stream.

Road Shots Part Two - May 29

Ryan Keberle, Jen Wharton, Mike Fahie, Sam Sadigursky

Our too-short stay in Amsterdam (would love to actually spend time in the city at some point) wrapped up at noon on May 29, as we lit out of town and headed for Dortmund. Google Maps had this pegged as a 2.5 hour trip , but with holiday weekend traffic (congestion? On the Autobahn? Indeed) took nearly twice as long, and we missed the first hour of our soundcheck at Domicil. A bit nerve-wracking, as hollow stage + 4 subwoofers directly underneath us + limited setup time + severely exhausted band = reversion to middle school band trip behavior (see below for photographic evidence), but luckily the Domicil sound tech was both patient and solid, and we worked it all out in the end. Actually, all of the sound techs we worked with this tour were remarkably good, the odds of which surely approach infinite improbability.

I hadn't done due diligence on Dortmund and was expecting a much smaller city -- turns out it's the seventh-largest in Germany, almost as big as Stuttgart and bigger than places like Düsseldorf, Bremen, Hanover, Leipzig.... And Domicil is a very hip multi-genre club, the kind of venue that wouldn't be hugely out of place in NYC. The crowd started small but filled out as the show went on. They were uncannily silent during our set but incredibly appreciative afterwards -- I wish we'd had time to give them an encore, but the club had a live radio broadcast happening after our set and we needed to clear out of there.

We had just (barely) enough time in Dortmund to soundcheck, eat, play, then pack up. We left that night for our final destination, Moers, getting in around midnight. Like any group of road-weary musicians, we headed immediately for the hotel bar, where we were joined by members of a local bowling league, who before too long were singing lusty drinking songs and insisting we all join them in shots of Underberg. I leave you to guess which Secret Society co-conspirator actually brought home a 12-pack tin of the stuff.

More photos -- both mine and Jon's -- below the fold.

Road Shots - Wikan Supplemental - May 27-28

Seneca Black & Sebastian Noelle

(Photo: Jon Wikan)

So it turns out trying to blog from the road while also keeping a 19-musician tour together and trying to find time to enjoy the hang is a bit tricky to pull off. Who knew? I did manage one post and a handful of road-tweets, but the real wrapup comes ex post facto. Spoiler alert: no casualties, no destroyed instruments, and only one book of music left behind. Really, that alone ought to qualify the tour as a smashing success.

Anyway, in the interests of keeping things more or less chronological, below the fold you will find Society drummer Jon Wikan's shots of the tour's first 48 hours, which, when compared to my own account, gives a Rashomon-like alternate perspective on recent events.

Euro express

Back in Brooklyn. More photos and (post-)tourblogging to come.

Briefly, though: I've had a few inquires from our new European fans looking for our CD -- yes, New Amsterdam ships worldwide, and shipping costs are reasonable. Also, no matter where you are in the world, you get instant access to downloadable MP3s when you purchase the CD from NewAm.

However, if you prefer to purchase from a European distributor, Infernal Machines is also available from InstantJazz.

Road Shots Part One - May 27-28

According to the official itinerary (painstakingly prepared by the band's very own tour manager, yrs trly), our first-ever European tour officially commenced on May 27 with a 9 AM rehearsal in New York. After that, we reconvened at JFK for a 5:45 PM Air Berlin flight to Düsseldorf. A huge shout-out to Air Berlin for not only being cool about all the instruments we brought aboard, but also arranging things so that all of the unbooked seats on the flight were in our section -- just in case anyone's instrument didn't fit in the overhead bin! (They did, of course, but airlines never believe you when you tell them this.)

We had been scheduled to arrive in Düsseldorf at 7:10 AM the next morning, but the flight was a titch late and we didn't really get rolling until 8:30 AM.  As promised, our rental bass was already on the bus, which was also equipped with an on-board coffeemaker and a fridge stocked with Kronenbourg, sold on the honor system. (I still don't fully understand why a German bus company had French beer in the fridge, but hey.) Our awesome driver, Nazim, got us to our Amsterdam hotel around 11:30 AM, and those who could sleep, slept -- for a few hours at least. We had a 4:00 PM lobby call and then Nazim dropped us off at the Bimhuis for our soundcheck.

After a spectacular meal -- the Bimhuis chef pulled out all the stops for us -- the downbeat for our first set at the Bim came just after 8:30 PM. At this point we had been up for basically 34 hours. It's all a bit of a blur but I think we did okay. We played until about 11 PM and the post-show buzz was enough to extend the hang well into the wee hours. A handful of lunatics got up the next morning to go running before our 11:30 AM lobby call for the bus to Dortmund.

To be continued... photos below the fold.

Please read the letter, I pinned it to your door

The Society has a new News-Letter. It is conveyed directly to your electro-courier's In-Box and looks like this. It will be distributed approximately once a month, or whenever there is Important News to Convey. If you are not yet subscribed, you can do so here. 

We recommend you opt for the HTML version, as the plain text option looks Very Bad Indeed. We are awfully sorry about this -- we have a sentimental fondness for plain text emails ourselves. But you know, "Kids Today and their Damnable Desire for the 'Bling'..." what can be done?

Speaking of Important News to Convey, we have just now added another NYC performance to our schedule -- Secret Society will return to the Jazz Gallery on September 18. More information will be forthcoming... all in due time, comrades.

Tomorrow we embark for Europe. Tourblogging (and tourtweeting, most like) will ensue, assuming there is Wireless "Fi" to be had.

P.S. Infinite Summer. Oh, yes.

I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos

(Photo: Lindsay Beyerstein)

SECRET SOCIETY
INFERNAL MACHINES RECORD LAUNCH
UNDISCOVERED ISLANDS
GALAPAGOS ARTS SPACE
BROOKLYN NY
08 MAY 2009

SETLIST (click to listen; right-click/ctrl-click to download)
1) MP3: Phobos (partial)
Solos: Jon Wikan, cajon; Mark Small, tenor sax

2) MP3: Zeno
Solo: Ryan Keberle, trombone

3) MP3: Transit
Solo: Ingrid Jensen, trumpet

4) MP3: Redeye
Solo: Sebastian Noelle, guitar

5) MP3: Jacobin Club
Solo: Sam Sadigursky, tenor sax & Mike Fahie, trombone

6) MP3: Habeas Corpus
Solo: James Hirschfeld, trombone

7) MP3: Obsidian Flow
Solo: Erica vonKleist, alto sax

DOWNLOAD ALL (ZIP ARCHIVE)

I am truly stunned -- in a warm and fuzzy but nonetheless bug-eyed way -- by all of the attention Infernal Machines has attracted. As regular readers of this blog know, I am a deep believer in striving for art that is intelligent and well-crafted and deeply personal, but also presented in a way that actually resonates with other contemporary humans. I am gratified beyond words that this music has struck a chord with so many of you. I am especially grateful to those who have followed and supported the band since our first raggedy-ass gig at CBGB almost four years ago. (And people say there's no such thing as progress... )

The live audio from our CD launch gig at Galapagos (linked above) actually turned out amazingly well. I don't pretend to understand the voodoo involved in getting these "field recordings" -- made with a digital recorder, a pair of binaural capsule mics, and a prayer -- to sound good, but for whatever reason, I seem to have accidentally hit upon a sweet spot with mic placement and levels, so this live representation is better than most. This is somewhat mystifying since the onstage sound at Galapagos was tough on us -- but from all reports, it sounded good in the room. For this I give mad props to Paul Cox, lead recording co-conspirator on Infernal Machines. He was also aboard assisting with live sound at Galapagos, thank the FSM. I only regret that I forgot to start the recorder until the middle of "Phobos" -- so I am afraid the recording of that tune begins in medias res.

At any rate, if you like your bigband raw instead of cooked -- or if you merely want a different perspective on the music from Infernal Machines -- we offer you the live tracks from this show gratis, as is our custom. Don't get me wrong, donations are always appreciated -- as are CD and T-Shirt sales, naturally -- but these live tracks are yours to share, burn, abuse, etc.

There are two more nights of Undiscovered Islands left at Galapagos and I hope you will come out to support the brilliant young artists involved in this festival -- this Friday, May 22, Signal performs Sarah Kirkland Snider's Penelope, and May 29 marks the premiere of Missy Mazzoli's Songs From The Uproar and a preview of William Brittelle's Television Landscape.

CO-CONSPIRATORS

WINDS
Erica vonKelist
Rob Wilkerson
Sam Sadigursky
Mark Small
Josh Sinton

TRUMPETS
Seneca Black
Tom Goehring
Matt Holman
Nadje Noordhuis
Ingrid Jensen

TROMBONES
Mike Fahie
Ryan Keberle
James Hirschfeld
Jennifer Wharton

RHYTHM
Sebastian Noelle, guitar
Gordon Webster, piano & electric piano
Ike Sturm, contrabass & electric bass
Jon Wikan, drum set & cajon

National Jazz Awards postscript

Photo: Ian Chandler -- thanks, Ian!

Thanks to all who came out to the National Jazz Awards last night. I was presented with the SOCAN/CAJE Phil Nimmons Emerging Composer Award by Phil Nimmons himself. This was a kick because Phil -- a few days shy of 86 years old -- remains one of the hippest figures in Canadian jazz. With the help of the SOCAN/CAJE Jazz Orchestra, assembled by Darcy Hepner, we premiered "Hard Up On The Down Low," an anthem of global economic collapse featuring Ingrid Jensen on electronically manipulated trumpet. (Ingrid got show off her brand new Line 6 mega-rig.)

It was a real honor to perform at this event, which featured great performances by Mario Allard's band, a very good bigband made up of local student players, and closed with Joel Miller's smoking arrangement of Gil's "Time of the Barracudas," played with the assistance of the Jensen sisters and Alex Dean's killing house band.

However, I was disappointed to learn that the names of the musicians did not appear in the program. Perhaps there was not time to include them. But the players in the SOCAN/CAJE band include some of Toronto's finest musicians, and they worked their asses off to learn "Hard Up On The Down Low," which is not at all an easy thing to put together in a short period of time! They deserve serious props and I am very grateful to all of them:

WINDS
Darcy Hepner
Toby Stewart
Michael Stuart
Alex Dean
Mike Filice

TRUMPETS
Jason Logue
Dave Dunlop
Jon Challoner
Bruce Cassidy
Ingrid Jensen (solo)

TROMBONES
William Carn
Rob Sommerville
Phil Gray
Bob Hamper

RHYTHM
Joey Goldstein, guitar
Adrean Farrugia, piano
George Koller, bass
Joel Haynes, drums

More photos -- courtesy of the amazing and amazingly generous Ian Chandler -- below the fold...

Secret Society @ Le Poisson Rouge, 15 July 2009

Our next NYC hit will take place on Wednesday, 15 July at Le Poisson Rouge. Tickets here. More info soon.

What people are saying about Infernal Machines

"[A] fresh jolt of discovery [...] a potent debut [...] the weight of its achievement feels properly definitive."
— Nate Chinen, New York Times

"For a wholly original take on big band's past, present and future, look to Darcy James Argue."
— Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek

"It's maximalist music of impressive complexity and immense entertainment value, in your face and then in your head."
— Richard Gehr, Village Voice

"[A] seven-track marvel of imagination."
— David Adler, Time Out New York

 "Infernal Machines stands defiant, updating the big band tradition for the new millennium while presenting exciting possibilities for the future."
— Troy Collins, All About Jazz

"[A] wonderful combination of sounds, styles, moods and messages"
— Richard Kamins, Hartford Courant

"[T]his is a seriously great record, one of the finest examples of new jazz I’ve heard in the past decade, one of the finest big band records ever made, one of the finest jazz records I’ve truly ever heard."
— George Grella, The Big City

"Among the young turks, Darcy James Argue has the most heat."
— Trevor Hunter, NewMusicBox

"An exciting stylist with an abundance of ideas, Argue deserves his place alongside Schneider, Hollenbeck and other contemporary big band arrangers who are looking beyond traditional notions of what a large jazz orchestra should, and can, sound like."
— James Hale, Jazz Chronicles

Incriminating Evidence 2009.05.08

Erica vonKleist
(Photo: Lindsay Beyerstein)

More photos from our CD launch hit at Galapagos are available here, courtesy of official Society photographer/consort Lindsay Beyerstein.

Deepest thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate the impending release of Infernal Machines. We are, as always, honored and grateful for your support.

Infernal Machines CD launch TONIGHT @ Galapagos

Infernal Machines is almost upon us, and we are celebrating tonight at Galapagos Arts Space — 16 Front St. in DUMBO, Brooklyn:

View Larger Map

This also the opening night of New Amsterdam's Undiscovered Islands. NewAm is hosting a pre-party at reBar (just around the corner) beginning 7 PM.

Lots of people have been asking about where they can buy the album. It is not out yet! But the release date is just a few days away —Tuesday, May 12. On that date, CDs and digital downloads will be available here. I am sorry there is no way to preorder -- believe me, that is something I wanted very much. But kindly be patient for just a few more days and on Tuesday you'll be able to get your fix.

Or if you can't wait for May 12, come to the Galapagos hit tonight! Advance copies of Infernal Machines will be available at the show.

More press:

• New York Times pick (Nate Chinen)
• The Making of Darcy James Argue's Infernal Machines -- Eric Benson, All About Jazz. Today they are also hosting a free download of "Zeno."
• Interview in mental_floss magazine.
• Trevor Hunter gives "Phobos" a spin for NewMusicBox's Sounds Heard.
• Composer Kelly Fenton gives us a very kind shout-out at her blog, Bottomless Cup.

Full court press, hands in your chest

On the home stretch (I hope) of a new piece, but I remain slack-jawed and goggle-eyed at all the recent attention. In the event you are not yet sick of hearing about me:

• Darcy James Argue's Metal Machine Music — Richard Gehr, Village Voice — nice to see fellow travelers J.C. Sanford and Chris Jentsch mentioned as well.
• My interview/listening session with Josh Jackson on The Checkout -- both the broadcast version and the Extended Directors Cut.
• David Adler reviews Infernal Machines for Time Out New York.
• George Grella reviews Infernal Machines for his blog, The Big City. 

Also, if you are looking for somewhere to hang before our 10 PM hit at Galapagos on Friday, New Amsterdam is hosting a special pre-party from 7:00-9:30 PM at Rebar (147 Front St, just down the block from Galapagos). Food, drink, and merriment are all to be had in abundance.

But my time here is brief

Completely consumed with preparations for our CD launch hit at Galapagos this Friday, but I thought you should know:

• Infernal Machines is now streaming in its entirety.
• On May 12 (and thereafter), you will be able to purchase the album (CD+immediate download, or download only) directly from New Amsterdam Records.
• Tonight at 6:30 PM Eastern I will be a guest on WBGO's The Checkout. Yes, there are streaming/download/podcast options as well.
• Infernal Machines is a Soundcheck CD Pick of the Week.
• More reviews: Troy Collins in All About Jazz and Richard Kamins in the Hartford Courant blog.
• We have been nominated in the 13th Annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards, in the categories Up and Coming Artist of the Year, Large Ensemble of the Year, and Blog of the Year. People, this is insane. Have you seen the other nominees? Ulp. "It's a honor just to be nominated" is so pitiably inadequate it's not even funny.