Addy/Marsalis composition featured on Sundance TV series

Iconoclasts, a Sundance Channel TV series, is this week featuring a segment on two New Orleans innovators: jazz giant Wynton Marsalis and chef John Besh, both of whom discuss their passions and creative work.

The broadcast also highlights ?Congo Square,? the two-hour composition that resulted from a collaboration between Marsalis and Skidmore?s own Yacub Addy, the Ghanaian-American drum master and founder of the music group Odadaa! The composition honors the contribution of Congo Square (in New Orleans) to American music, and includes footage of rehearsals, the New Orleans world premier in April 2006, and a June 2007 performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Odadaa! performs ?Congo Square? with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Characterized by Albany Times Union writer Greg Haymes as a ?rich, impressive, cross-cultural music experience,? Congo Square takes its name from the New Orleans site where, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the city?s slaves were allowed to gather on Sunday afternoons. Explained Haymes, ?...they were free to dance and play the music they had carried from their various homelands. Eventually the various African strains intermingled with music of the European brass traditions, a cross-pollination that led to the development of jazz.?

?Congo Square,? the music composition, blends American jazz with intricate African rhythms. The piece was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center and began to take shape at the Egg in Albany, where Marsalis first began working with Addy, a member of Skidmore?s Music Department faculty. Since its debut ?Congo Square? has been presented throughout the United States and segments have been broadcast on Public Radio International and HBO.

Sundance Channel broadcasts of the Iconoclasts segment featuring ?Congo Square? are as follows:

Monday, Nov. 26, 11 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 28, midnight
Thursday, Nov. 29, 9 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m.