I am excited to announce that the Playing For Change crew will be leaving for Japan this weekend! We have been hard at work this past year creating new Songs Around the World, and we are very excited to have the opportunity to add Japanese musicains to these tracks. Japan has a unique and beautiful culture, and we know that we are all in for a real treat. And we are looking forward to sharing this experience with the Playing For Change Family!
Make sure to keep checking the website, facebook, twitter, and flickr, as we'll be posting updates daily! We have already lined up some amazing musicians for our time in Japan, but we are always on the lookout for more. If you know of any musicains living in Tokyo that you would like to introduce us to, mail us at info@playingforchange.com, and tell us all about them! Playing For Change is a musical movement built by the world, and we always love to hear from you.
Peace and Love from Los Angeles!
I originally wrote this blog high in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica last week-- unfortunately we did not have internet access in that beautiful part of the world, so I am only just now able to post it, having just gotten back to LA...
Wow, it feels great to be in Jamaica. Such a beautiful place with beautiful people. Naturally, with that comes beautiful music. We have only been here two days and have already met, filmed, recorded, and embraced some of the most talented musicians we have ever encountered. A big thank you to Courtney and Sean Diedrick, who showed us some serious love and not to mention brought some serious fire to our songs. After landing in Montego Bay we shuttled to Discovery Bay to film at some extraordinary and “real” Jamaican locations. From Discovery Bay we crossed the island through mountains to Kingston. As I write this we are 4000 feet up in the Blue Mountains outside of Kingston. Truly a country filled with a rich culture and proud people. You can feel the history and legacy that Bob Marley has left here as one of the great ambassadors of music and peace in the world. No place is this more evident than in Kingston. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings
Its all about RESPECT here in Jamaica. Earn their respect and they will certainly win yours.
One Love,
Raan
travel
Posted by Mark Johnson, 3 months ago
Today, the PFC crew arrived in the beautiful city of Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. When we arrived we asked a local if we were likely to find some musicians for our project-- they laughed and said, “In Bahia, you shake a tree and musicians fall out of it!”
We have been traveling the world for years trying to build a global community and somehow we knew all along this intention could never meet its potential without Brazil!! We have received so much love and support while traveling in Brazil and spent the last week recording every day in Rio de Janeiro. It is such a beautiful city full of life and music. We recorded and filmed Samba, Bossa Nova, Reggae, and recently we were given the opportunity to work with one of the greatest organizations in the world, “Afro Reggae.”
This organization works all over Brazil and the planet using the power of music to transcend differences and conflicts and replace them with love, respect and community. They are very well known here in Brazil for all of their work in the Favellas (poorer neighborhoods), and offered us an inside look into their transformational programs. They provided us the freedom to visit some of these neighborhoods and add some of their musicians to our new songs around the world. Our Producer, Raan Williams, told me today, “If there is ever proof that music saves lives, this is it. And if you let it, it just might save yours.”
These are words to live by, and everyday when Playing For Change travels the globe we are always reminded that we ARE the Change we want to see in the world. Music Is Our Ammunition!!!
One Love,
Mark
travel
Posted by Mark Johnson, 7 months ago
When we think about the role of dreams in our lives, they serve as both the places we go when we shut our eyes as well as the hopes and aspirations we hold for the future of our loved ones and ourselves. Playing For Change began as a dream to create something that could be full of positivity and inspiration for the human race. We have found that music is the greatest tool on earth for us to achieve our dreams of a better world for everyone. The village of Kirina, Mali is the heart and soul of this dream and a place with music at its core.
It is an ancient village with about 1,000 people, all of whom are descendents of musicians, many of them over 75 generations of musicians. They have no electricity, but enough soul to brighten all of us as we share this journey together. It is also the home of the newest Playing For Change Music School. When they heard the Playing For Change crew was coming to visit them to discuss the idea for the new school, they told us they had dreamed we would come, and they are prepared to be a part of the next chapter of our life’s journey, and thus have titled the new school “The Playing For Life” Music school.
Last week we traveled with the Playing For Change team to Kirina with our brother andsoul mate Baaba Maal. He is a legendary singer in West Africa, and even he was humbled by the opportunity to visit the people of Kirina and meet the elders. He told us that he learned about Kirina growing up in school, but did not realize that it was a real place that still maintains their ancient traditions and culture. We traveled with 4 cars full of musicians and the Playing For Change Foundation crew and were greeted with open arms and songs from the villagers. We gave gifts to the elders and were granted permission for Baaba and friends to perform music for the village chief under the mango tree. I swear if ever humanity has shined a light it was on this day!! Baaba performed for all the people in Kirina and was joined by our friend and percussion master, Mohamadou Diabate. The elders from the village had donated land for us to build our new music school, and this day was an opportunity to celebrate the great future we all share together.
I ask everyone who believes in a better world for tomorrow to join us today to build our next great music and art school in the village of Kirina, Mali. Together, it is a dream that we can make come true, and we will always know that there is a place where music and inspiration are passed on from generation to generation for the betterment of all of humanity – Playing For Life!!!
With the arrival of Sinamuva, the South African choir from Umlazi, our band is now complete. Everyone was overjoyed as all the musicians met each other for the first time, and that energy spilled right over into today's rehearsal. The bus ride was one massive jam session, with the choir singing and the rest of the band playing improvised percussion ranging from hand claps to banging on the ceiling-- the ball bearing curtain rods even became a make-shift shaker! The energy of the whole group is off the charts and I know that tomorrow's show is going to be an unbelievable experience.
After rehearsal we all piled back into the bus and took over an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious and the company could not have been better. It feels like one big family vacation here in Madrid, and we're looking forward to sharing the experience with a few thousand more members of the PFC Family tomorrow night at La Caja Magica.
Peace and Love from Madrid!
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