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PLAYING FOR CHANGE - Lets get together and save the world - THROUGH MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT and COMMERCE… !

December 15, 2009 by Claudia 

~ Mark Johnson, founder, Playing for Change.  Join the Playing for Change Online Street Team at: http://ufanz.com/teams/play… The act of playing music with people of different cultures, religions, economics and politics is a powerful statement. It shows that we can find ways of working together and sharing our experiences with one another in a positive way. Music has the power to break down the walls between cultures, to raise the level of human understanding.

ill Moyers sits down with Mark Johnson, the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music: PLAYING FOR CHANGE: PEACE THROUGH MUSIC. The film brings together musicians from around the world — blues singers in a waterlogged New Orleans, chamber groups in Moscow, a South African choir — to collaborate on songs familiar and new, in the effort to foster a new, greater understanding of our commonality.Photo by Robin Holland Johnson traveled around the globe and recorded tracks for such classics as “Stand By Me” and Bob Marley’s “One World” — creating a new mix in which essentially the performers are all performing together — worlds apart. Often recording with just battery-powered equipment, Johnson found musicians on street corners or in small clubs and they would in turn gather their friends and colleagues — in all, they recorded over 100 musicians from Tibet to Zimbabwe.

The unique composition of the film which has musicians playing together yet in their own traditions, made Johnson think anew about what world music means:

Just thinking in my mind… what would be unique instruments to juxtapose against each other that had never been heard before: a talking drum and a tabla, they’re very similar but they never really come together, or a sitar and a dobro, very similar but how often do you hear them play together? The idea was to go to places that would have some sort of instruments that they could add to the spectrum of the global music that we were trying to find.

The Playing For Change Foundation provides resources (facilities, supplies, educational programs, etc) to musicians and communities around the world. The foundation is working with South African poet Lesego Rampolokenga to build the Mehlo Arts Center in Johannesburg, South Africa and building and supporting the Ntonga Music School in the South African township of Guguletu. In addition, Playing For Change is working to enhance and rebuild Tibetan refugee centers in Dharamasala, India and Kathmandu, Nepal. You can find news about their benefit concerts and programs, and listen to additional songs, on their Web site: Playingforchange.com.PLEASE NOTE: PLAYING FOR CHANGE: PEACE THROUGH MUSIC is the second film directed by Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls. Their previous film, titled PLAYING FOR CHANGE: A CINEMATIC DISCOVERY OF STREET MUSIC was released in 2005, and is currently available through Netflix.

Music and video content from PLAYING FOR CHANGE: PEACE THROUGH MUSIC, featured on BILL MOYERS JOURNAL, will be available through Playing For Change’s online store in early 2009, and released on CD and DVD in the Spring of 2009 through Hear Music. If you have any questions regarding this project, please email info@playingforchange.com.

Guest photo by Robin Holland

Published October 24, 2008.
Katherine Newman, photo by Robin HollandBernice Johnson Reagon
Performer, activist, songwriter and scholar, Bernice Johnson Reagon has for over 40 years been singing, preaching and teaching traditional African American music and its cultural history.

Manuel Vasquez, photo by Robin HollandMartín Espada
Bill Moyers talks with poet Martín Espada about the power of words to effect social change.

Will Power, photo by Robin Holland BILL MOYERS ON FAITH & REASON: Will Power
Will Power is an award-winning actor, rapper, composer, playwright, and educator whose pioneering fusion of traditional drama, African storytelling, and hip-hop sensibilities is helping transform modern theater

YouTubeHope in the Congo?
THE JOURNAL takes viewers on the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo to follow aid workers and local relief efforts that are bringing hope to a forgotten land. “The aid agencies are almost substituting for a social welfare system that hasn’t operated in these areas for decades,” says Dominic MacSorley, Emergency Director for Concern Worldwide, an international aid organization.

YouTubeSarah Chayes
Sarah Chayes, author and former journalist who has been helping rebuild Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime, with a look at the front lines of America’s war there.
Playing for Change
Visit the PLAYING FOR CHANGE site to find out more about the project and hear more of the songs recorded around the world. A note to users, one version, Playingforchange.com.PBS Teachers: Music
The PBS Teachers Web site has hundreds of lesson plans for all grade levels. Choose from lessons related to KEN BURNS’ JAZZ, THE BLUES, AMERICAN MASTERS, and GREAT PERFORMANCES.

Guest photos by Robin Holland

Published October 24, 2008

Record Label: Hear Music, Label Type: Independent, Country: United States:

Albums:

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WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE - LETS GET TOGETHER AND LET THEM FEEL THE MUSIC!!!

LETS FORWARD THIS TO ALL - SO WE CAN UNITE IN A WORLD OF MUSIC AND COMMERCE!


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Comments

2 Responses to “PLAYING FOR CHANGE - Lets get together and save the world - THROUGH MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT and COMMERCE… !”

  1. Topics about Tibetan | PLAYING FOR CHANGE - Lets get together and save the world - THROUGH MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT and COMMERCE… ! on April 21st, 2009 2:06 pm

    [...] All Access Magazine Blog placed an interesting blog post on PLAYING FOR CHANGE - Lets get together and save the world - THROUGH MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT and COMMERCEâ [...]

  2. Bhavna on July 29th, 2009 9:06 am

    so moving and stirred the strings of my heart. Thank you

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