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Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, one of the most celebrated ensembles in contemporary jazz, makes its second appearance at Penn State to perform works selected from its first decade of innovative big band repertoire. “It’s maximalist music of impressive complexity and immense entertainment value, in your face and then in your head,” writes a reviewer for The Village Voice.

Newsweek writer suggests that “for a wholly original take on big band’s past, present, and future, look to Darcy James Argue.” The Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based composer and bandleader made headlines with the release of Secret Society’s Infernal Machines (2009), which along with Brooklyn Babylon (2013) and Real Enemies (2016) was nominated for a Grammy Award.

New York Times critic praises the most recent album as “wildly discursive, twitchily allusive, a work of furious ambition … deeply in tune with our present moment.” A London Jazz News writer calls the release “a mind-blowing example of truly great, era-defining jazz composition, and a contender for album of the year.”

Secret Society tours throughout North America, Europe, and South America. The eighteen-member band has also performed four times at the Newport Jazz Festival.