
NEA JAZZ MASTER DONALD HARRISON JR.’S recording “Congo Square Suite,” Movements I, II, and III, is his music and cultural perspective placed into a classical orchestral, tribal, and jazz paradigm. The elements include over forty years working with hundreds of master innovators from every jazz era, various other African diaspora music styles, and European classical music.
“Congo Square Suite” is a unique idea of epic musical proportions. It marks the only recording that displays an artist’s life experiences as an Afro-New Orleans Big Chief and master musician composing, orchestrating, and performing his production. Its concept of music as a series of multiverses containing the same elements was the natural evolution for this artist. Harrison furthered this idea when he saw correlations between music and quantum theory. With “Congo Square Suite,” Harrison shows that his talent, experiences, and quantum realizations are the keys to understanding his intrinsic portals.
