Tourblogging 5

Well, The Madness is over, as is our first-ever tour. And in spite of some potentially disastrous mishaps -- missing drum parts, ailing co-conspirators, and oh, did I mention that Matt Clohesy's bass amp died the day before we set out on tour? -- everything worked out far better than I'd dared to dream. The band played my music with such fire and grace, I often found myself barely able to keep conducting -- I'd want to just stand there in slack-jawed amazement at the transformation of my feeble dots on a page into waves of glorious sound. As I said at our Montreal hit, the players in this band are some of the very best musicians in the world -- period -- and there is simply no way I can even begin to properly express my gratitude for all of the long hours of work everyone put into helping to bring this crazy scheme to fruition.

Here is a nice writeup of our final hit at Tranzac, from Carl Wilson (of Zoilus and the Globe & Mail):

As it turned out, the concert that night at the Tranzac by Darcy's Secret Society North band (the core of his 17? 18?-piece New York ensemble along with a pack of great Canadian players stepping in as, er, pitch hitters) was one of the most galvanizing illustrations of that development I've witnessed in a long time. While I've read and traded links with Darcy for a long while, I hadn't taken the time to listen to his music. So what I (and a substantial crowd of IAJE attendees and local musicians) got at the Tranzac came as a wonderful surprise. Fluidly and expressively conducting this "steam punk" big band (horns, reeds, drums, electric guitar and bass, Rhodes piano), Darcy rolled out one after another his incredibly smart, complicated, beautiful, firey and funky compositions. (In the lineage of, but distinct from, the writing and arranging of his teacher Bob Brookmeyer - see Ben Ratliff's profile in The New York Times.)

I told people afterwards that it was like hearing Duke Ellington and minimalism and Tortoise and Funkadelic and Elliott Carter and much else besides melding into one floating, shifting, dodging music, often with political themes (one piece was dedicated to Maher Arar), sometimes with Escher-like overlaps and spirals. I didn't take notes so I can't be more specific (though there were standout moments from saxophonists Christine Jensen and Chet Doxas [whose trio opened], trumpeter Jason Logue [who was subbing in for Lina Allemano, who unfortunately fell ill], trombonist Barb Hamilton, guitarist Sebastian Noelle, pianist Gordon Webster and drummer Jon Wikan, among others). But in short, this is music for people who fuckin' love music. This skinny, scruffy young Brooklyn dude's got it and he knows just what to do with it.

Carl also talks about our jazzblogging panel (with David Adler and David Ryshpan, moderated by Neil Tesser). I do want to clarify one thing -- I am sure that the gentleman who asked the question about increasing "appreciation" of jazz "fucking loves" Ellington and Mingus every bit as much as I do. It's just that the word "appreciation" carries a certain amount of negative baggage for me, especially at a jazz education conference. But I hope I didn't come across like I was pouncing on him in particular.

I'm currently on a WiFi-equipped train (cool!) heading back to Montreal, from whence I'll depart for NYC tomorrow morning. Once I'm back home in Brooklyn, I'll bring you all up to date with tales and photos from the road -- and most importantly, audio from our tour hits! But until then, a reminder that you can download MP3s of previous Secret Society performances from the right-hand sidebar of this blog, or by going to our live audio archive, which goes all the way back to our very first gig in May 2005 at CBGB. They are yours to download, mix, burn, share with your friends -- you know the deal.

I have been so gratified by the response the band has gotten on this tour. Obviously, this music means a tremendous amount to me, and knowing that it means something to other people is the fuel that keeps me going through all of these sleepless nights. (Well, that plus lots and lots of caffeine.) We got a standing O for our IAJE set and since then I've been just floored, and honestly a bit overwhelmed, by the number of people coming up to me to tell me how much they enjoyed our music.

I am especially happy that so many young players, still in music school, found something that resonated with them in our music. Your support means the world. And, well, I don't mean to get all convocation speech-y on y'all, but seriously, assuming some of you are reading this, I want to tell you guys something -- the fate of this music is in your hands. Not your teachers', not your heroes' -- your hands. Yours.

The jazz tradition isn't about elements of style or a particular harmonic or rhythmic vocabulary, and it's not about some bullshit notion of "progress" in music, either, where "progress" = "increasing density" -- it's about having the fortitude to get out there and make a heartfelt personal statement that only you can make. You want to honor the legacy of Bird or Miles or Trane or Mingus -- honor their searching, individualist spirit. Study the past, but make your own music.

(Okay, end of lecture. I didn't get to do any workshops at any schools on this run, so I had to get that out of my system.)

For about the past month or so, my internal monologue has been almost entirely dominated by the words "I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this" running 24/7 on infinite loop -- often terrifyingly out of phase, à la "Come Out." While it was all happening, everything was far too hectic for much introspection, but now that the tour is over and I'm on my way home, it's like "hey, waitaminute -- I actually did do that." It's a nice feeling.

Of course, there's no way I could have pulled this off without a lot of help, and it's time for some thank-yous. First off, the band -- Erik, Christine, Joel, Chet, Carl, Ingrid, Lina, Kevin, Jocelyn, Jimmy, Mike, Kelsley, Barb, Bob, Seb, Gordon, Matt, and Jon. You guys are the best. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. And if you do not know these musicians, fercrissakes go here, follow the links, and check then out -- almost all of them are themselves bandleaders, and their music is amazing. Thanks especially to Joel Miller and Chet Doxas for opening for us at La Sala Rossa and Tranzac, respectively, and to Christine Jensen for all her logistical help, and to Carl Maraghi for driving me up to Montreal. Thanks also to Bill Mahar and Christopher Smith for subbing during rehearsals, and again to Jason Logue for subbing in at the last minute at Tranzac.

Thanks to Jenny Koopman and John Bickle for hosting both me and (unexpectedly) Matt Clohesy in Montreal. Thanks to Caitlin Smith for not only hosting me in Toronto, but distributing our propaganda around the city, working the door and selling merch at Tranzac, printing replacement drum parts, and just being generally awesome. You should check out her band, Tiny Alligator.

Finally, my most profound gratitude and appreciation to those who contributed to our tour fund: Lori Kirchen, Jack Brown, David Rothschild, Mwanji Ezana, John Murphy, Gerard Hogan, Richard Kamins, Amy Cervini, Patrick Boyle, Steve Bellamy, Suzi Beyerstein, Janet Allen, and most of all, my folks, Gord and Nancy Argue. Apart from a very modest stipend from IAJE for performing the ASCAP/IAJE premieres, we did not receive any grants or any other form of institutional support at all for this tour -- and believe me, it was not for lack of trying. So I am grateful beyond measure to those people who believe in what we do enough to make a contribution -- this tour would not have happened at all without the support of these individuals. I should add that it is not too late for you to show your support -- those tour-related credit card bills will come due soon, so anything you are able to contribute is very sincerely appreciated. Remember that thanks to Fractured Atlas, your contributions to our Winter 2008 tour fund are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

And if you'd prefer something more tangible, those fashionable Secret Society t-shirts are still available.

I had a lot of people at IAJE asking me why I don't have a CD for sale, and the answer is simple -- I can't afford to make a studio recording. Yet. You can help us make that happen sooner by making a donation or buying a t-shirt.

Stay tuned for post-tourblogging and tour audio, coming up soon. It's been a hell of a week, and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

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MANDATORY DISCLAIMER GOES HERE: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society North's Winter '08 Tour is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society North may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Comments

[M. C-]

1.

I am sure that the gentleman who asked the question about increasing "appreciation" of jazz fucking loves Ellington and Mingus every bit as much as I do.

just pointing out that it took a couple reads for me to parse that sentence the way you intended.

congratulations on the tour! i'm coincidentally wearing my secret society shirt as i type.

[D0nnaTr0y]

2.

Congratulations, Darcy! I'm so proud of you! You made the impossible happen- a big band tour financed entirely independently. As someone who graciously gives away his recordings at no charge, you deserve that success!

I'm not at all surprised that your band recieved a standing ovation but your account of it brought tiny tears to my eyes! I have no doubt that you inspired tons of young musicians out there and hopefully woke up some of the older ones to the magic that is still happening in jazz. As a memeber of the jazz (and big band) community that you represented, I say Thank You! Well done!

[DJA]

3.

Sid,

Let me tell you, jazz fucking is always appreciated. (I've added quotes to clarify the syntax.)

Kelly,

Thanks so much for your too-kind words. I look forward to hanging out now that I'm back in town.

[Shannon]

4.

Darcy, It was great to meet you following the blogging panel at IAJE. I don't think you came off as a pouncer with your comment about appreciation vs love - in fact from the smile on "appreciation" man's face I'd say he knew exactly where you were coming from. I think all of us in the crowd responded to the passion of your response and I wholeheartedly agree with you. The necessity to foster visceral relationships with jazz in our listeners rather than continuing to project everything through an academic lens was a debate that came up repeatedly at the conference. My conclusion: fucking trumps studying every time.

[matthew wengerd]

5.

"The necessity to foster visceral relationships with jazz in our listeners rather than continuing to project everything through an academic lens was a debate that came up repeatedly at the conference. My conclusion: fucking trumps studying every time."

now that sounds randy.

[matthew wengerd]

6.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=61968

quite photogenic