I was just thinking to myself the other day, “Self, no one ever asks you if you like music. They always ask you what kind of music you like.” For some reason, we all seem to know deep down that music matters to just about everybody.
The good folks at Playing for Change know this, and they’re doing something pretty incredible. Check out this summary from their partner, the Concord Music Group:
Utilizing innovative mobile audio/video techniques, Playing for Change (PFC) records musicians outdoors in cities and townships worldwide. They’ve travelled from post-Katrina New Orleans to post-apartheid South Africa, from the remote beauty of the Himalayas to the religious diversity of Jerusalem. Their talents are captured in myriad environments: under the sun and beneath the streetlights… in public parks, plazas and promenades… in doorways, on cobblestone streets, amid hilly pueblos. Their performances are subsequently combined in allowing them to collaborate – albeit separated by hundreds, or even thousands, of miles.
The song below is the one that started it all off – it’s a remake of Ben E. King’s classic “Stand by Me.”
Roger Ridley, the inspiration behind this project, is the man who starts off the song. He spent his entire life surrounded by music, finally choosing in 1997 to live in Las Vegas but travel to Santa Monica on weekends to perform on the 3rd Street Promenade. It was here that Mark Johnson, the co-founder of Playing for Change, first heard him and realized that he wanted to share Roger’s voice, soul and passion with the rest of the world.
In doing my research for this post, I found out that Roger passed away in late 2005, just a matter of months after he was first recorded by PFC. If you want to learn more about his life, his family put up a website for him here.
Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. Take a look around their website to learn more about what they do, purchase music and see some other cool videos. My second-favorite song is called “Chanda Mama,” a folk tune from India.
While looking around at their musician’s index, I realized something pretty cool. Not everyone you see performing on the street is poor, homeless, or desperately needing money. Not by a long shot. Some people just do it because they love the venue. Maybe that’s just my own shortsightedness, but I never thought about it like that. It made me think about taking the time to challenge my assumptions more often.
I really like how this idea fits in with the theme of ItStartsWith.Us. One guy does what he loves, singing on the street, which gives another guy (who happens to be a producer and sound engineer) an idea to record and mix him with others who do the same thing. Pretty soon the idea has grown worldwide in scope, and they’ve put together something unique and meaningful, which can easily be broadcast to the rest of the world by sites like this. In the end, people are touched by the music and the idea of a shared connection with others, and pretty soon another project will be born from these seeds.
You know what it all adds up to.
Change the world.
