Working: How a Big Band Leader and Composer Wrangles All the Moving Parts

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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue, who fronts the 18-piece big band jazz group Secret Society. In the interview, Darcy talks about the thought processes that go into his compositions, like how his interest in mathematician Alan Turning inspired a track on the group’s most recent album Dynamic Maximum Tension. He also discusses the many hats he needs to wear, how he balances complexity and accessibility in his music, and how he makes the most of rehearsal time with such a big group. After the interview, Isaac and co-host Ronald Young Jr. talk about the challenges and discomforts of self-promotion. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Darcy explains how he decides how to assign solos in his big band music. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's taken a few months, but I think I've almost chosen our next car.
0:04.0	I've weighed up new versus second-hand, assess the depreciation rates, and spoken to eight insurance providers.
0:08.0	I'll be ready to enter phase two of selection over the next few weeks.
0:11.0	You might be a driving enthusiast but were not all
0:13.9	admin enthusiasts. PivotL is the all-inclusive premium car subscription service
0:19.2	that simplifies your life. With insurance, maintenance and the possibility of switching to a fresh
0:23.8	vehicle every six months, experience the flexible alternative to car ownership at drivepivotal.com. I'm always really turned off by music that is designed to create a certain overt
0:47.8	impression of complexity and I love complexity in music I love virtuosos, but I don't want the music to be about those things.
1:00.0	Welcome back to working.
1:01.0	I'm your host, Ronald Young Jr. And I'm your host Ronald Young Jr.
1:03.5	and I am your other host Isaac Butler.
1:05.5	Isaac Butler, it's wonderful to be chatting with you for possibly the last time.
1:10.5	Second to last time we have our final episode that will all be on.
1:14.0	But, and I assume we'll have discussions IRL not into a microphone in the future.
1:21.0	Yeah, I try not to make it sound so ominous but I don't know that's just my thing.
1:24.4	We'll be chatting for the last time because I'll be murdering you at the end of this week's
1:28.8	episode. If I have it my way this will be the last time. Exactly.
1:33.6	Whose voice did we hear at the top of the show?
1:36.2	That was the big band composer arranger and bandleader Darcy James
1:42.2	argue, probably best known for his group Darcy James Argu
1:46.3	Secret Society which has had multiple Grammy nominated albums the most recent of which
1:51.9	is called Dynamic maximum tension and it's put out by none such
	...

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