A couple days ago I was working in my office, NPR burbling in the background, when something came on that had me sitting up straight with my ears trying to crank around to hear better. It was the Jimi Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower, a song that is somewhat familiar to me; I bought the album it was on when it first came out a very long time ago.
But this version began with a Native American woman singing like an electric guitar, Native drummers behind her—that was my wait, what? moment. More singers and musicians from all over the world joined in, playing instruments you’d never expect to hear on a redo of this song. I was gobsmacked by what I was hearing. It had an energy and joy that was arresting, and absolutely contagious.
That night, late in the evening, I used our ancient Roku to try to find the video for it on TV so my wife could hear it, and I could hear the whole thing. After wading through interminable ads on YouTube, I found it. What we saw and heard blew us away. It was late, but we ended up watching a few other videos before calling it a night. Brilliant, whole-world-music treatments of songs like Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and of particular fun, La Bamba.
This wonderful music all came from one source: an organization called Playing For Change.
Maybe this is old news to you. If it is, I commend you. I don’t know how I managed to remain so unaware of the music and work from these good people, but I was, like a dolt watching for pennies on the sidewalk while there was blue sky and birds above him. So who are these folks? Per Wikipedia:
Playing For Change is a multimedia music project, featuring musicians and singers from across the globe, co-founded in 2002 by Mark Johnson and Whitney Kroenke. Playing For Change also created in 2007 a separate non-profit organization called the Playing For Change Foundation, which builds music and art schools for children around the world.(snip)
Travelling the world with a small film and recording team, producers Johnson and Enzo Buono developed a mobile recording studio (originally powered by golf cart batteries) for recording and filming musicians live outdoors, and progressively editing all the separate artists, blending all into one performance as PFC travelled from artist to artist, country to country. Starting with a studio-made demo in the right key and tempo, "we would deconstruct [the track]" as each recorded musician could listen with headphones to what had been recorded before them, and playing the same song, adding into the mix their own style. For the project Johnson has recorded and filmed music in more than 50 countries across the world.
The variety of dancers and musicians contributing to these videos is so amazing it could pass for magic. They run the gamut from big names like Bono, Yo-Yo Ma, Trombone Shorty, Brandi Carlisle, Mavis Staples, Ringo Starr, Annie Lennox, Ziggy Marley, Buddy Guy and dozens more on the famous side, and more than 150 mostly street musicians; in total they have recorded over a thousand musicians from more than 50 counties.
And as part of their mission they have created and supported music school programs across eleven developing countries. Students from some of these programs are part of some song videos. PFC has a touring band, at least one record.
I signed up for a membership for access to this trove, $60 per year. Money is tight, but this cried out for support. Check out their Wikipedia page, check out their site, and most of all look for Playing For Change videos. You will be rewarded.
