Songs Around The World - Playing for Change
04/28/2009 | Hear Music
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CD
$15.99SONGS AROUND THE WORLD (W/DVD) (DIG)
Songs from Songs Around The World - Playing for Change
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All Music Guide Review
Playing for Change is producer Mark Johnson's multimedia project intending to tie the world together via music. Johnson traveled the globe between 2004 and 2008, finding musicians in every corner of the world, from African villages to the streets of Santa Monica, then recorded them, usually singing American rock and pop classics, for this 2009 charity album. Many of the ten songs here are quite familiar -- Ben E. King's "Stand by Me," Peter Gabriel's "Biko," Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout a Revolution," U2's "Love Rescue Me," Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," and Bob Marley's "One Love" and "No More Trouble" -- and even if the arrangements aren't necessarily faithful, they are familiar, blending in elements of blues, gospel, folk, reggae, and African music that's eclectic but not exotic. That familiarity isn't just due to the heavy presence of blues singer Keb' Mo' -- who sings on three tracks here -- and Bono's cameo, but also how Johnson's discovery Roger Ridley is essentially a soul singer in the vein of Ted Hawkins and how all the material, even Pierre Minetti's written-to-order "Don't Worry," is presented in the form of Western pop music. This does help give Playing for Change a broad potential audience, one that might find itself introduced to new rhythms, harmonies, and textures thanks to this good-hearted project. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Songs Around The World - Playing for Change Track Listing
Songs Around The World - Playing for Change Notes
Utilizing mobile audio/video techniques, Playing for Change (PFC) records musicians outdoors in cities and townships worldwide. They've travelled from New Orleans to 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.
Playing for Change began a decade ago, the brainchild of Grammy-winning music producer and engineer Mark Johnson. "I was in a subway in New York on my way to work, and I heard these two monks playing music," he recalls. "They were painted head to toe, all white, wearing robes. One was playing a nylon guitar, and the other was singing in a language I didn't understand. There were about 200 people who stopped to watch, didn't even get on the train. Some had tears in their eyes. And it occurred to me that here is a group of people that would normally run by each other, but instead they're coming together. And it's the music that brought them together."
For ten years Johnson and his team traveled the globe, with a single-minded passion to record little-known musicians for what would become Playing for Change - its name evoking the coins thrown to street musicians as well as the transformation their music inspires. They went to New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina. "The city felt sad and desolate, yet the music never stopped," says Johnson. "The street musicians and music in the clubs kept the city alive and gave it a sense of hope." When they visited South Africa and witnessed its growing pains in the aftermath of apartheid, "we saw that people marching down streets singing in groups of thousands did more to effect positive change than any weapons ever could."
Credits of Songs Around The World - Playing for Change
- Mohammed Alidu
- Djembe
- Anthony Rich
- Producer
- Reggie McBride
- Vocals (Background), Bass (Upright), Bass (Electric)
- Louis Mhlanga
- Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
- Kristle Murden
- Vocals (Background)
- Liam Ó Maonlaí
- Vocals, Didjeridu
- Poncho Sanchez
- Conga
- Keb' Mo'
- Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Dobro, Vocals
- Cathy Jordan
- Vocals, Bodhran
- Doug Kenney
- Producer
- Brian McDonagh
- Mandola
- Shane Mitchell
- Accordion
- Michael Murphy
- Vocals
- Vusi Mahlasela
- Vocals
- Gavin Lurssen
- Mastering
- Enzo Buono
- Guitar, Producer, Photography, Engineer
- Rocky Dawuni
- Vocals
- Valerie Pinkston
- Vocals (Background)
- Mike Montero
- Engineer
- Roger Ridley
- Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
- Joel Petersen
- Percussion
- Clayton Gibb
- Banjo
- Norman Lear
- Executive Producer
- Luke Miller
- Piano
- Greg Morgenstein
- Post Production, Editing
- David Bacon
- Executive Producer, Photography
- Jeff Paris
- Guitar, Vocals (Background)
- David Broza
- Guitar
- Tchad Blake
- Mixing
- Alexandra Brown
- Vocals (Background)
- Peter Bunetta
- Drums
- John Burk
- A&R;
- William Aura
- Bass (Electric), Photography
- Bob Marley
- Vocals