Playing For Change

Lotsa video here at EIP lately. Here's another:

I first saw the video above… or one very much like it, and a lot more… on PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal. Here’s an excerpt from the “Playing For Change” piece on Moyers’ site:

October 24, 2008

Bill 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.

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.

And for those of you Gentle Readers who just might be raising an eyebrow because I’m linking Moonbat Extraordinaire Moyers… remember that ol’ saw about stopped clocks being right twice a day. I’ve mentioned at least once before that Friday night is Moonbat Night here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, wherein I watch “Now” and “Bill Moyers Journal.” I hit the mute button on my teevee quite often during Moyers’ shows… better than half the time, actually… but he does have socially-redeemable content occasionally. The “Playing For Change” piece is one such example.

Good, innit?