Kerry Pither

Darcy James Argue’s 18-piece “steampunk big band” Secret Society has just released a fabulous new album, “Infernal Machines”, which includes a haunting instrumental piece dedicated to Maher Arar. Argue is from Vancouver, now living in New York. His band has been dubbed a “powerful and well-stocked ensemble” and designated an official “Jazz Great of Tomorrow” by the New York Times and is featured in this month’s Village Voice and in Newsweek, which proclaimed that “if Ellington went indie, he’d sound something like Darcy James Argue.” I asked Argue about the piece dedicated to Maher Arar and here’s what he said:

The piece was written in September and October of 2006, after the Canadian Commission of Inquiry issued its final report. I completed work on it shortly after President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, enshrining into law the denial of habeas rights to “alien unlawful enemy combatants.” It is dedicated to Mr. Arar but it’s really a response not just to his specific case, but to the entire regime of torture, rendition, kidnapping, black site prisons and all the rest, which have become depressingly normalized. It’s also my attempt to break through feelings of apathy, denial, “outrage fatigue,” etc. (including my own) and attempt to express things that can’t easily be put into words. I hope it resonates in some way with others and ideally stirs them to action.

Very cool. “Habeas Corpus” can be downloaded for free from National Public Radio (NPR) here, but I hope you’ll purchase the tune or the whole album from New Amsterdam Records here.