During the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival, JazzTimes set up a make-shift video production studio backstage inside the old barracks of Fort Adams. During two afternoons, a succession of artists-including Jack DeJohnette, Jason Moran, Theo Bleckmann, Christian McBride, Linda Oh, Donny McCaslin, Dafnis Prieto, John Ellis and several others-came in to talk about the festival, jazz education and their own projects. We have been posting these interviews at jazztimes.com. You can also see more of these video interviews from the Newport Jazz Festival (in 2011 and 2012), as well as from the Jazz Cruise, at the JazzTimes YouTube channel.
In this interview from the Newport Jazz Festival, composer, arranger and bandleader Darcy James Argue talks about his early musical education and development, growing up in Montreal and eventually moving to New York City. Argue discusses the inspiration for his innovative large ensemble,the Secret Society. And he explains how he chooses the musicians for that group.
