For the second consecutive Friday, my ears were ringing with the brassy wail of big band jazz. Last week, it was Vancouver's Hard Rubber Orchestra at Kitchener's Open Ears Festival; last night, Darcy James Argue and his Secret Society blew up Galapagos, in celebration of the release of their debut album Infernal Machines. Like Hard Rubber, Darcy and the Secret Society reinvent the traditional big band sound with elements of new music: pulsing, repetition, occasionally weird chromaticism. This was my third time hearing them, and I was able to pick out all kinds of new things in Galapagos' friendly confines (and much improved sound!) Name another band that pays back those kinds of dividends after repeated listening.
Darcy – who's been getting all kinds of press lately – is originally from Vancouver, so I asked him afterward if he knew the HRO. "Oh, I grew up listening to those guys," he told me, mentioning he saw my post on them last week. "Is (trombonist) Hugh Fraser still in the band? He's the one who first introduced me to Mingus' Ah Um." I told him I couldn't remember. (He is.) Fortunately, Darcy didn't have trouble remembering the names of his own eighteen from the stage. (More pics below.)