Addys to discuss the making of 'Congo Square'

Music illuminates history past and present in Congo Square, a critically acclaimed blend of African drumming, jazz, swing, and blues created by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and Skidmore percussionist Yacub Addy.

Insights into its making will be presented by Addy, the founder and leader of the Ghanaian performance ensemble Odadaa!, and his wife Amina in "Working with Wynton: Challenges of Creating Congo Square," starting at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, in Filene Recital Hall. Odadaa! itself will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, in Filene Recital Hall on campus, presenting traditional Ghanaian pieces and new works created by Addy and group members. Admission to both events is free. For more information, call (518) 580-5320.

The 75-minute presentation of "Working with Wynton" will feature video footage of the New Orleans premiere and the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival performance of Congo Square, along with photos, personal stories and history of the musical collaboration, a demonstration of rhythms incorporated into the piece, and a question-and-answer session.

The presentation is one of a number of events augmenting the 2008-09 First-Year Experience program, which takes the 2005 Hurricane Katrina as a starting point to explore themes of race and class differences, jazz, nature, identity, and personal and political responses to disasters.

FYE-related events throughout the fall semester included campus visits and performances by New Orleans jazz composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, the 2008-09 McCormick Scholar-in-Residence; his CD soundtrack, A Tale of God's Will: Requiem for Katrina, is the centerpiece of FYE 2008. Other FYE events included showings of Spike Lee's Katrina-inspired HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (with a score by Blanchard) and Faubourg Treme, a film about the history of black people in New Orleans. Two upcoming dance concerts of PearsonWidrig Dance Theater company's are scheduled for Nov. 1 and 2. The work is described as a "live documentary" of dance, video, and the spoken word.

Descended from a family of Ghanaian drummers, singers, and dancers, Addy founded Odadaa! in 1982 after moving to the U.S. A nine-piece ensemble of artists from the Ga tribe of Ghana, Odadaa! combines African polyrhythmic drumming with bamboo flutes, guitar, balafon (a wooden xylophone), vocals, high-energy dance, and lush costumes.