Author, jazz critic and President of the Jazz Journalists Association Howard Mandel posted a list of his favorite CDs from 2009 on his blog, Jazz Beyond Jazz, this past Friday.

Darcy James Argue’s Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) and The Thirteenth Assembly’s (un)sentimental (Important Records) both earned spots of the 11-title list.

Of the former, Mandel writes, “Recasting the ‘jazz’ orchestra with an ear hip to a spectrum of contemporary composition but most of all sound itself, Argue diplays a nervy ethos by conducting 18 not-very-well-known but gutsy instrumentalists through arresting themes, solid rhythms and energized solos. This is Brooklyn offline, ironic but earnest, and has drawn a following among listeners in their late 20s-early 30s.”

And, he called the debut of Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone’s collective quartet, The Thirteenth Assembly, “Chamber music for moderns—a cornetist, drummer, guitarist and violaist walk the lines between structure and improv, sensitivity and humor, questions and suggestions, inherent references to the past and unpretentious confidence they’re in the right place for music now.”

The list was compiled from nearly 1000 CDs Mandel received for review since last November, so naturally there were lots of honorable mentions. John Hébert’s highly regarded debut, Byzantine Monkey (Firehouse 12), was part of the “Also Much Enjoyed” list.

The first Jew to set foot in Colonial America, was Joachim Gans, who came here in 1584 having been recruited by Sir Walter Raleigh as he set out on an expedition to explore the Virginia territory. In 1654 a group of 23 Dutch  Jews arrived from Brazil, on the shores of New Amsterdam (New York), fleeing the Inquisition recently instituted in Portugal’s new colony. Like the Mayflower Pilgrims before them, this group came to the New World in search of opportunities and religious freedom. Life wasn’t easy; dreams could only be realized through an incredible amount of determination, hard work, sweat, tears and personal sacrifice.

I can just imagine these Dutch/Brazilian Jews in the new land celebrating Thanksgiving with a slowly cooked Moqueca Capixaba (a Brazilian dish consisting of: fish, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, chili pepper and additional ingredients). Fish was plentiful,  requiring no shechita.

As the years and centuries progressed, Jews realized unparalleled success in the New World, engaging in  fields of study and a variety of livelihoods unrivaled in our history… We educated ourselves and our children, excelling in areas in academia, maths and sciences, commerce, technology and the arts.  We suddenly had new freedoms and exploited unprecedented opportunities. 

In 1946, my dad, a teenager at the time, arrived to these shores,  on an orphan transport boat called the Ernie Pyle. In his hand was a shabby little suitcase that contained his Tefillin and a herring. Shortly after his arrival, speaking but a few words of English, he landed a job in a baby blanket factory, sewing & sweeping floors. His one meal a day was dinner at Ratner’s, one of the famous dairy eateries of its day, where he’d sit down to a bowl of soup and all the bread he could eat. The Hungarian wife ( and amazing cook) he married two years later, kept him happy and content in the kitchen and in life. May they continue together in health and happiness till 120!

Dad’s early days in the new land remind me of an old joke:

Abe Cohen goes to a restaurant every day for lunch. He always orders the soup du jour. One day the manager asks him how he liked his meal. Abe replies (with a Yiddish accent) “Vass goot, but you could give a lidle more bread.”

The next day, the manager tells the waitress to give him four slices of bread. “How was your meal, sir?” the manager asks. “Vass goot, but you could give a lidle more bread”.

Next day the manager tells the waitress to give him eight slices of bread. “How was your meal today, sir?” the manager asks. “Vass goot, but you could give a lidle more bread”.

The manager is now obsessed with seeing Abe say that he enjoyed his meal, so he goes to the bakery and orders a 6ft long French loaf. When Abe comes in – as usual – the next day, the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, butter the entire length of each half and lay it out along the counter, right next to his bowl of soup. Abe sits down, and devours both his bowl of soup and both halves of the 6ft loaf of bread. The manager now thinks he will get the answer he is looking for. When Abe comes up to pay for his meal, the manager asks in the usual way: “How was your meal TODAY, sir?” Abe replies “It vass goot, as usual, but I see you are back to giving only 2 slices of bread!”

How times and country have changed us all! America is still  a land of opportunity, if we can just get past the gauntlet of recorded voice messages that stand between us and our daily bread. Though the the ‘Goldeneh Land’ has lost some of it’s glitter, we have much to be grateful for.  We enjoy freedoms in this country that others less fortunate literally die for each and every day.  Though our health care system is in shambles, we have access to medical care, medication and vaccines that don’t even exist in other countries. We benefit  from technologies we never dreamed of; at our fingertips we have the power to transform the world or to destroy it.

In our tfilos we thank the Almighty each and every day, three times a day.  We acknowledge His mastery over Creation and bless His handiwork in everything we eat and partake of in His world. All our accomplishments are through His divine grace. Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the US, it brings families together from near and far, as collectively America remembers all we have to be thankful for.

Wishing those that celebrate this holiday a Happy Thanksgiving filled with good cheer, good conversation, good food, in the company of loved ones.

In the holiday spirit, I’ll leave you with a personal heimishe recipe for turkey stuffing and simple turkey baste. Enjoy!!

Exclaim!’s December issue features its annual Year In Review in which each contributor writes about one release “that excited them most this year.”

David Ryshpan, contributor to the magazine’s Destination Out section, chose Darcy James Argue’s Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam Records).

“Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based Argue has expanded the big band vocabulary,” he writes. “A protégé of masters Bob Brookmeyer and Maria Schneider, he bridges the gaps between new classical, indie rock and jazz. Argue’s masterful use of mutes and woodwind doubles, his harmonic sophistication, attention to form, and a secret weapon in guitarist Sebastian Noelle, place Infernal Machines at the forefront of 21st century jazz.”

Photo by Chad Batka for The New York Times

On Wednesday, November 25th, composer/conductor Darcy James Argue and his acclaimed big band, Secret Society, will make their first-ever appearance at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club.

The 18-piece ensemble, which released its highly regarded debut, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam Records), in May, will play two sets, beginning at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. For this performance, Argue and the band will welcome special guest drummer Kendrick Scott (Terence Blanchard, Jimmy Greene, Gretchen Parlato).

“Kendrick last played with Secret Society in November 2006 at the Bowery Poetry Club,” Argue explains, “and it’s a thrill to welcome him back into the fold. I’m a huge fan of his playing—he’s both highly inventive and sublimely grooving, and he’s an amazing listener. I’ve written a lot of music since he last played with us and I’m very excited to hear what Kendrick will bring to that material.”

He adds, “I’m pleased our first performance at a marquee NYC jazz club happens to be at the one that’s been open-minded enough to host performances by groups like Anthony Braxton’s 12+1tet and the Cecil Taylor Big Band.”

Title: Seven for a Secret (LT)
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Series?: Second in her New Amsterdam series. Works as a stand-alone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Basic Reason for Beginning: EEEEEEEEEEEE! More Abby Irene! (Also, more Bear! Creeping up on reading the lot!) More Abby Irene!
Basic Reason for Finishing: Uhm, actually this has me a little stumped. ^-^;
Texture: Like most of Bear’s work, it feels like a kind of barrier going up between me and the characters.
Blurb: Prussia has successfully invaded Britain, giving Abby Irene a chance to return to London to die in her home. However, things aren’t quite so simple when they find out the Prussians are intending to create their own kind of wolf-man creature, a creature that would be near-unstoppable.
Book Rereadability: It’d probably be good for me, but I don’t know…
Author Rereadability: Still interested in more of Bear’s work. For all the (personal!) issues I have with her work, she writes some compelling stories.
Recommendation: Er, I wouldn’t suggest this as introduction to Bear’s works? (Sorry. Stumped.)

Pages: 128
ISBN: 1596062339
Challenges: None.

Thoughts, Burbles, Etc

It’s been… a bit since I finished this book and I’m just going to give up on coming up with some nice, coherent whole. (Do yourself a favour, skip straight to the ‘other reviews’ section and go from there. It’ll be more useful.) And I’ll also just launch straight into it:

I wish I’d read this sooner after New Amsterdam, so the events were fresher in my mind. (Like, a lot fresher.) As it stands/stood, I felt the novella was… lacking. It has an end, and it fits as an end, but as a reader I couldn’t help but sit there going “That’s it? We’re not going to hear about what you’ve been building up this entire novel?”

I admit I felt cheated. I want to know what happens next. What repercussions it’ll have. How it all hangs together. And, at present, I’m being denied knowing. The ending works as an ending – actually, it’s really pretty, in a sad kind of way – but… I just wanted more, expected more. To me, it doesn’t feel like what we read was the end of a story, merely the end of a section of a story.

Also, there was too little Abby Irene for my tastes. Sure, she’s old and not up to prancing around cities solving crimes, but that only makes her more awesome in my eyes. I mean it. Apart from Miss Marple, how many old ladies solving crimes do you get to read about? Abby Irene, however, takes a backseat to Sebastien.

And perhaps the problem lies simply in the fact that I don’t get along with Sebastien. Don’t ask me why, he just… I don’t see his attraction. Whether that’s me, the focus shift or the barrier between me and Bear’s characters that seems typical of (my reading) her work, I don’t know.

Now, don’t get me wrong in thinking it’s all gloom and doom and disaster. I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the careful craftsmanship, as I always find it in Bear’s work. I enjoyed the challenge (and, er, failure) of piecing everything together into a whole. I enjoyed the scenes with Abby Irene we did get. I enjoyed the interaction between Sebastien and Ruth. The attention to detail. The world-building. I enjoyed all of it. A lot. I just don’t think the story ended where the novella tells me it ended and I’d love another novel-length book. (Keeping in mind New Amsterdam was an anthology rather than one whole story as it is.) Moooooooore. I clamour for mooooooooore. That’s the biggest problem I have with Seven for a Secret. I want more than I got, because I’m invested in the story and the characters.

So… Let me get back to said story and characters and try to tell you something useful. In Seven for a Secret, Bear returns to the werewolf mythology/mythologies and comes up with some fascinating different looks at the aforementioned folklore. For me it doesn’t so much matter whether most of it is taken straight from folklore or Bear’s invention, I’m concerned with how it fits into the world-building she’s done so far. It fits. It fits in a really neat (read ‘cool’, or whatever slang term means similar nowadays) way.

I’m not a big werewolf fan – I’ve no idea why. I’m not a zombie fan either, conversationally – so I really don’t know what’s out there or whether my imagination wound up sketching lack-of-transformations that Bear never intended. I do know that I liked my interpretation of the wolf-girls *fails at name-retention* as described here. I liked the way they were created, the choices they had to make… I’m failing miserably at the whole ‘review this book’ thing tonight… But I liked it. I have a pretty large chip with the book, but that’s chiefly because I want to know more. More, I tell you!

Other Reviews

Adventures in Reading
The Green Man Review
The SF Site
Stella Matutina

Cruise Lines Make Big Europe Push

 This morning I attended the 2010 Europe webinar for Holland America Line.  That venerable cruise line is betting heavily that Europe will be a hot destination for next year.  In fact, they are dedicating their two newest ships the Eurodam (debuting this year) and the Nieuw Amsterdam (coming in July 2010) to full seasons in Europe.

 The Mediterranean seems to be the big winner.  The major cruise lines have extended their Med seasons into October of November in some cases (even year-round for a few).  The Northern Europe season which usually involves the Baltic is much shorter because by October the weather starts to be chilly and less inviting for cruise guests.  St. Petersburg, Russia is a major port with every visiting ship overnighting and some spending two nights in that port.  In fact, a major trend is for many ships to overnight in places like Venice, Barcelona, Istanbul and elsewhere.

 With the Euro heading higher against the dollar, the value of a European cruise has grown.  Equivalent European hotels and resorts are usually far more expensive than most ship costs.  Cruise Holidays is looking forward to having a new arsenal of tools for 2010 including better air choices, concierge services and hotel packages to top off a great cruise vacation.

 Lots of choices for Europe in 2010, but it looks like the cruise lines are offering their best deals for those who book earlier.  It’s a destination which most Americans find to be a magnetic draw.  Plus, new river cruise ships and itineraries now add extra pizzazz for those who want to experience Europe.

Photo by Chad Batka for The New York Times

Nate Chinen reviews Monday night’s Brooklyn Big Band Bonanza at The Bell House in today’s New York Times.

The performances of all three ensembles are recounted, including the headliners, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, which Chinen writes, “played a bracing final set” featuring “an array of backbeats, breakbeats and Latin American polyrhythm, with the flow largely dictated by Mr. Argue, who conducted with brisk, acute gestures.”

If you missed them on Monday, you can catch Argue and the band at tonight’s New Amsterdam Records/Cantaloupe Music CMJ Showcase at Le Poisson Rouge and on November 25th at Iridium Jazz Club.

© 2009 Oliver Heisch/Moers Festival

New Yorkers will have two chances to catch Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society live in concert this week.

Tonight the group headlines SearchandRestore.com’s Brooklyn Big Band Bonanza, which will also feature The Industrial Jazz Group and Travis Sullivan’s Björkestra, at The Bell House.

Wednesday night’s performance will be part of the joint New Amsterdam Records/Cantaloupe Music CMJ Showcase, also featuring music by David Lang, Julia Wolfe and The NOW Ensemble, at Le Poisson Rouge.

In case you missed it, a story about Darcy James Argue and his innovative 18-piece big band Secret Society called “A Jazz Band Worth Blogging About” aired this afternoon on NPR’s All Things Considered.

The profile featured interviews by Patrick Jarenwattananon, who also posted additional thoughts and more quotes from Argue on NPR’s jazz blog, A Blog Supreme.

© 2009 Oliver Heisch/Moers Festival

Two weeks from tonight, on Wednesday, October 21st, Darcy James Argue and his acclaimed 18-piece big band, Secret Society, will perform as part of the Cantaloupe Music/New Amsterdam Records CMJ Music Marathon showcase at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge.

The event will also feature pianist Ning Yu performing music by David Lang, bagpipe player Matthew Welch performing music by Julia Wolfe and the NOW Ensemble performing a mix of New York premieres and older favorites.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the music begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 with free admission for CMJ Badge holders. Learn more at http://www.cmj.com/marathon

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society will also perform on October 19th at The Bell House in Brooklyn as part of SearchandRestore.com’s Brooklyn Big Band Bonanza and on November 25th at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club.

© 2009 Oliver Heisch/Moers Festival

On Wednesday, November 25th, composer/conductor Darcy James Argue and his acclaimed big band, Secret Society, will make their first-ever appearance at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club. The 18-piece ensemble, which released its highly regarded debut, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam Records), in May, will play two sets, beginning at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. For this performance, Argue and the band will welcome special guest drummer Kendrick Scott (Terence Blanchard, Jimmy Greene, Gretchen Parlato).

“Kendrick last played with Secret Society in November 2006 at the Bowery Poetry Club,” Argue explains, “and it’s a thrill to welcome him back into the fold. I’m a huge fan of his playing—he’s both highly inventive and sublimely grooving, and he’s an amazing listener. I’ve written a lot of music since he last played with us and I’m very excited to hear what Kendrick will bring to that material.” He adds, “I’m pleased our first performance at a marquee NYC jazz club happens to be at the one that’s been open-minded enough to host performances by groups like Anthony Braxton’s 12+1tet and the Cecil Taylor Big Band.”

Thanks to the phenomenal critical response to Infernal Machines, which gave credence to the strong word-of-mouth following the band has built over the past four years, Argue is one of 2009’s most talked about jazz musicians. Active as both a composer/bandleader and influential blogger, his recent career highlights include a series of features in jazz and non-jazz publications alike, three nominations in this year’s Jazz Journalists Association Awards and high profile concerts in New York as well as Germany, The Netherlands and his native Canada, where he conducted an all-star performance of a new, specially commissioned piece at the National Jazz Awards. Most recently, he was tapped to write the liner notes for Dave Douglas’ forthcoming big band release, A Single Sky (Greenleaf).

The new October issue of JazzTimes features reviews of Darcy James Argue’s Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) and Joe Morris/Petr Cancura/Luther Gray’s Wildlife (AUM Fidelity).

“Infernal Machines is the future of the big band,” declares Michael J. West, “with leader Darcy James Argue presenting seven fiercely original and exciting compositions and arrangements for his 18-piece ensemble. His music is ambitious, experimental and complex, but in a sense far closer to indie rock with its immediacy and wide-ranging palette. With their haunting compositions and imaginative experiments, Argue’s Secret Society might do for jazz what Radiohead did for rock—and poach some of its audience, too.”

In his review of Wildlife, Mike Shanley writes, “Before too long, Joe Morris’ work as a bassist is going to eclipse his work as a guitarist—not that there’s anything wrong with that. Morris’ approach to the bull fiddle offers a solid focus to free-improvisation sessions, with some solos that take on percussive qualities when he really cuts loose. This album sounds loose but each track has a different mood that keeps things compelling for 56 minutes.”

With all the Shepard Fairey hoohaa a short time back it’s easy to overlook the local murals that don’t get nearly as much, if any, fanfare. While it’s been up for a month or so, we can’t stop loving the insanely beautiful Matt Spahr mural on the side of New Amsterdam in Lawrenceville.

And if you haven’t been to New Amsterdam at 45th & Butler, it’s a must. It’s definitely our favorite place to  get an East End Brewing Big Hop draft and watch the Steelers and Pens on their huge projection screen. The bartenders and waitstaff are always great and the food is pretty awesome as well.

-jp

© 2009 Oliver Heisch/Moers Festival

Composer Darcy James Argue’s innovative big band Secret Society will perform back-to-back gigs in New York starting tonight when it headlines the opening night of the fifth annual New Languages Festival at McCarren Hall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Tomorrow night the group will perform two sets at Manhattan’s Jazz Gallery, which commissioned two of the tracks heard on its acclaimed debut, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam).

These dates will kick-off the band’s busy fall performance schedule around New York, which also includes a headlining slot at SearchandRestore.com’s Brooklyn Big Band Bonanza at The Bell House on October 19th and two sets at Iridium Jazz Club on November 25th.

In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s first encounter with the Hudson River, there is a slew of interesting exhibits around the city about the Dutch colonization. I visited the exhibit “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” at the Museum of the City of New York last weekend. There were some interesting multimedia aspects that lend a great visual into how the city used to look.

Today I was able to encounter two more historical experiences regarding New Netherland. First I took a walking tour of the original Dutch colony with author Russell Shorto. If you are unable to visit the city for a dose a history, I highly recommend reading Shorto’s masterpiece, The Island at the Center of the World. His layers of research uncover the detailed events that comprise the early Dutch history and the beginnings of Manhattan. Plus, the book is told through the voice of a story teller and the historical figures become the main characters in its complex plot.

After that, I was able to get a peek of an exhibit at the South Street Seaport Museum. The curator, Martina Gosselink, showed me around the exhibit which opened yesterday. “New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World” contains centuries old maps and documents that illustrate the history of the discovery and the settlment of New Amsterdam. 

And in case you don’t go any further than this blog post, here are a few interesting facts about early New York:
–The Hudson River was called the North River until the mid-20th Century, and it is still called that by sailors today.
–Henry Hudson, the English explorer who discovered New York, was mutinied by his crew two years after discovering Manhattan. He and his teenage son were put on a small boat and left at sea, never to be seen again. 
–Broadway was first a central Native American path called the Wickquasgeck Trail.
–Wall Street once had a wall–or wooden fence–around it during the mid 17th Century. 
–Regarding the myth that the island was bought for 24 dollars: the island was really bought in exchange for mutual protection: the Dutch and Lenni-Lenape Indians would co-exist on Manhattan island and help protect each other in times of trouble.

If you were sailing up the East River in the mid-1660s and catching your first glimpse of New Amsterdam, this is what you could expect to see. 

Painter Johannes Vingboon depicts the colony as a tidy little Dutch hamlet, complete with row houses, a windmill, and, eerily enough, a gallows right on the shoreline. 

 
In the 1660s, Peter Stuyvesant was Director-General of New Amsterdam. Life wasn’t easy for the 1,500 souls living here: There were just a handful of muddy main streets and constant skirmishes with the Lenape Indians. But the City Tavern, built in the 1640s, probably made things bearable.

This painting is part of the National Archives of the Netherlands. It’ll be on display—along with other New Amsterdam artwork, maps, and plans—at the South Street Seaport Museum starting September 12.

It’s all part of NY400, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage along the river that now bears his name.

Photo by Ben Anaman

Time Out New York’s annual Photo Issue hits the streets this week and with it a section they call NYC in Pictures featuring photos of New York taken by 100 of the publication’s “favorite NYC celebrities, artists, photographers, and real new yorkers.”

Among this prominent list of would-be shutterbugs is our own Darcy James Argue, who has popped up on a number of radar screens since the release of his debut, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) in May.

Each person was given a single use camera and asked to document “their New York.”

You can check out Darcy’s photos, among images taken by musicians such as Sean Lennon and Little Steven Van Zandt, here.