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Wynton Marsalis brings his 'Congo Square' to the Mann

An indication that the musicians of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the African ensemble Odadaa! had a full, intuitive grasp of what each other was doing was clear when 76-year-old Yacub Addy, the Ghanaian master drummer, suddenly stood up and danced, his ill body suddenly free.

An indication that the musicians of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the African ensemble Odadaa! had a full, intuitive grasp of what each other was doing was clear when 76-year-old Yacub Addy, the Ghanaian master drummer, suddenly stood up and danced, his ill body suddenly free.

This musical, social and political statement came during the Mann Center's presentation Friday night of Wynton Marsalis' "Congo Square" suite, a composition for big band and African ensemble.

Addy had been hospitalized, Marsalis said, but he came to Philadelphia to play with his musicians in "Congo Square." The composition by Marsalis was dedicated to the New Orleans square of the same name on which African and Afro-Caribbean people performed truly African music during and after slavery - one of the few places in America where this was allowed to happen.

Throughout the night, the contexts in which Marsalis placed the secular and religious strains of music made clear just how the music of Africa and America, and the diaspora in between, are related. During one passage, the extended drum patters of the Ghanaians (from the Ga people) sounded amazingly similar to Cuban big-band trumpet and saxophone figures, and the piano figures of Dan Nimmer during the active but elegiac "Peace" evoked the skittering notes of Ghanaian highlife.

At times, though, the two continents did not blend smoothly; on several occasions, bassist Carlos Henriquez's intuitive knowledge of polyrhythm saved the transitions and the proceedings.

There were moments of great musicianship throughout the evening; the work of soloists such as trumpeter Ryan Kisor, saxophonist Walter Blanding and drummer Ali Jackson stood out, as did Odadaa's stellar bell work.

But when Marsalis sang, played trumpet and danced brilliantly during the penultimate selection, a New Orleans second-line march called "Sanctified Blues," the night took on an air of encouraging triumph over adversities, ranging from the effects of the institution of slavery on Africa to its continued impact on the New World to the problems black folks continue to face in post-Katrina New Orleans.