Dynamic Maximum Tension Darcy James Argue's Secret Society

• 1 Dymaxion 07:03
• 2 All In 07:37
• 3 Ebonite 06:33
• 4 Last Waltz for Levon 06:54
• 5 Wingèd Beasts 13:42
• 6 Your Enemies Are Asleep 08:17
• 7 Codebreaker 05:38
• 8 Ferromagnetic 09:16
• 9 Single-Cell Jitterbug 05:25
• 10 Tensile Curves 34:44
• 11 Mae West: Advice 06:20
• Total Runtime 01:51:29

Info for Dynamic Maximum Tension

The album pays homage to some of Argue’s key influences with original songs dedicated to R. Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West. Fellow Nonesuch artist Cécile McLorin Salvant, with whom Argue collaborated on her long-form musical fable Ogresse, joins the ensemble for “Mae West: Advice.”

Dynamic Maximum Tension’s eleven tracks, also include a response to Duke Ellington’s “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” titled “Tensile Curves,” among other original songs.

Darcy James Argue is best known for Secret Society, an eighteen-piece group “renowned in the jazz world” (New York Times). Argue brings an outwardly anachronistic ensemble into the 21st century through his “ability to combine his love of jazz’s past with more contemporary sonics” and is celebrated as “a syncretic creator who avoids obvious imitation” (Pitchfork)

Acclaimed as an “innovative composer, arranger, and big band leader” by the New Yorker, Argue’s accolades include multiple Grammy nominations and a Latin Grammy Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and countless commissions and fellowships. His prescient 2016 Real Enemies, an album-length exploration of the politics of paranoia, was named one of the twenty best jazz albums of the decade by Stereogum. Like Real Enemies, Argue’s previous recordings—his debut Infernal Machines and his follow-up, Brooklyn Babylon—were nominated for both Grammy and Juno awards.

Dave Pietro, piccolo, flute, alto flute, soprano sax, alto sax
Rob Wilkerson, flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax
Sam Sadigursky, clarinet, tenor sax
John Ellis, clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax
Carl Maraghi, clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone sax
Seneca Black, trumpet & flugelhorn
Liesl Whitaker, trumpet & flugelhorn
Matt Holman, trumpet & flugelhorn
Nadje Noordhuis, trumpet & flugelhorn
Ingrid Jensen, trumpet & flugelhorn on Dymaxion, Ebonite, Last Waltz for Levon, Wingèd Beasts, Your Enemies Are Asleep, Ferromagnetic, Single-Cell Jitterbug, and Mae West: Advice
Brandon Lee, trumpet & fluegelhorn on All In, Tensile Curves, and Codebreaker
Mike Fahie, trombone
Ryan Keberle, trombone
Jacob Garchik trombone
Jennifer Wharton, bass trombone & tuba
Sebastian Noelle, acoustic & electric guitar
Adam Birnbaum, acoustic & electric piano
Matt Clohesy, contrabass & electric bass
Jon Wikan, drum set & cajón
Sara Caswell, violin & Hardanger d’amore on Tensile Curves
Cécile McLorin Salvant, voice on Mae West: Advice
Darcy James Argue, composer, conductor, ringleader