Since I started this blog, I've been trying to find what it is about music that connects people and cultures. From music blogs, to music stores, to concerts such as raves which strive for interconnectedness amongst the crowd, the culminating factor exists under one word: passion. Listening, watching, feeling, experiencing are all parts of the passion that people possess to enjoy and share music from around the world.
When I was introduced to PlayingForChange I was ecstatic. Not unlike AfroReggae, Playing For Change advocates social change by means of music mediums and messages. Recognizing the power that music has to break boundaries, bridge cultures, and connect individuals around the world, this multimedia movement has made (air)waves in the music scene. In accordance, now, with a joint venture of Timeless Media and Concord Music Group, artist from around the world are performing benefit concerts, and inspiring hope throughout the world.
A compilation of seventeen tracks on the album "Songs Around the World: Playing for Change" can be purchased in either a MP3 file, or CD-DVD which features the extremely moving (and rockin) videos of muscians from around the world, digitally mixed under one track. Released on April 28th, 2009, the album is already gaining notoriety on Itunes and Youtube as the world falls in love with the journey of Playing for Change. Watching this video below, I couldn't help but smile. This cover of Stand By Me was first recorded on the Promenade in Santa Monica by a street musician Roger Ridley. The musical composition was then transported to New Orleans, where a blind singer Grandpa Elliot sang vocals over the recording.
From there, everything from drums, violins, guitars, symbols were added in from all corners of the world. Ben E. King, the original singer, would be proud of the passion and love felt by those playing and listening to his song. Enjoy!
This blog entry was particularly interesting to me due in large part to the fact that the album is it referring to is on the front page of iTunes, first appearing just yesterday (Tuesday). I have not bought the album yet, but plan to in time. I believe that the versions of the songs on this particular collection sound more beautiful than most versions I have heard of such famous songs before. Particularly interesting to me is how the creators took an old idea and made it new. Compilation and collaboration albums are nothing new. Yet this work (this song in the case of your blog…here I am referring to the album as a whole) does not take the artist out of his or her environment. Rather, the people who produced the album let the original sounds of the musician playing in his environment be heard, and then combined it with another musician playing the same song thousands of miles away. The result is truly inspiring, and one that spans nations and brings cultures together by showing them how great they sound when working together in perfect rhythm. I have always felt that street music is among the best of types, and this song certainly proves that.
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