Photo by Lindsay Beyerstein

On Friday, September 30th at 8:00 p.m., Brooklyn-based composer Darcy James Argue and his innovative 18-piece big band Secret Society will perform at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston.

Tickets ($25 for non-members and $20 for members, students and seniors) are available in person at the MFA ticketing desk, by phone at 1-800-440-6975 and online at http://www.mfa.org

Front of house seating is available for an additional $5.

Argue, who earned his Master’s Degree at Boston’s New England Conservatory in 2002, last brought his acclaimed ensemble to the area in February 2010 when the band made its local debut at Regattabar in Harvard Square.

“There’s nothing else like Secret Society in today’s jazz scene,” declared the Boston Globe‘s Steve Greenlee in his review of the show. “Though he leads a big band, Argue is not stuck in the past. His music, which relies as much on hard rock as swing, is ambitious, relevant, and alive.”

Since then, Secret Society has become one of the most talked about groups in jazz, earning such high profile accolades as a GRAMMY® nomination, Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Up & Coming Artist of the Year and Large Ensemble of the Year, and first-place finishes in the Rising Star Big Band, Rising Star Composer and Rising Star Arranger categories in the DownBeat Critics’ Poll.

The band has also performed at such prestigious venues as Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Merkin Concert Hall and The Kennedy Center, and at world renowned festivals including CareFusion Jazz Festival Newport, the London Jazz Festival and the TD Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.

“Argue has managed to not just keep Secret Society together as a vehicle for his innovative writing,” explains AllAboutJazz.com’s John Kelman in a recent review, “but as a means for its musicians to develop a language and a familiarity with each other that’s clearly paying big dividends.”

JazzTimes‘ Michael J. West adds, “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.”

Learn more about Darcy James Argue and Secret Society at http://www.secretsocietymusic.org