Playing For Change 2005 avi

Playing for Change is a musical journey of discovery that celebrates the freedom and lives of street musicians existing in America today. Focusing on the three cities of Los Angeles, New Orleans & New York, Playing for Change captures an array of musical styles and human moments that would otherwise slip through the cracks of society.



PLAYING FOR CHANGE - A CINEMATIC DISCOVERY OF STREET MUSIC



Simply put, Playing for Change is a documentary about American street musicains.

That being said, I would hasten to add that some works cannot be "simply put,"

that they transcend such artificial categorizations to become something

universal, something that speaks to the collective soul.



Playing for Change is such a work.



This is not a gritty documentary focusing on the hardships of making a living on

the streets rather, it is a colorful celebration of what is at the core of the

American dream: the pursuit of happiness. Directed by Mark Johnson and Jonathan

Walls, Playing for Change examines a central, but too often dismissed, aspect of

American culture the music of the streets.



And it does so admirably. Linked by the motif of a single groove (a percussion

riff laid down by a cajone (a sort of Brazilian steel drum), the film is part

road trip, part slice-of-life vignette documentary and all music. It begins

innocouously enough, with a folksy singer named Lily Holbrook playing on a

street corner in Santa Monica, and that sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Immediately, any preconceptions we may have had about street musicians as

homeless panhandlers are dispelled. Instead, we are presented with a

well-scrubbed, articulate young woman who has taken to performing on the streets

as a means of overcoming her insecurities, and to sell a few CDs in the process.



Deeper into Los Angeles, we're introduced to the Carribean group Los Penginos,

and it is here that the plot, such as it is, of Playing for Change is set. After

the cajone beat is recorded, the theme of the movie becomes a quest to travel

cross country to make a jam that will eventually become the movie's centerpiece

song, "Playing for Change Blues."



Filmed in 2003 (but only released to DVD last April), the film moves from

southern California to a pre-Katrina New Orleans, where street musicians abound

in genres from Dixieland to bluegrass. It is here that Playing for Change is

most poignant, if only in retrospect. There are references from one musician to

Mayor Nagin wanting to "clean up" Jackson Square to make way for a more modern

New Orleans. But more importantly, there is the music, the vibrancy of diverse

styles all coming together in a relatively small area in a way that may never

happen again. A flying V blues riff is laid over the beat, and a slide guitar

over that, before the film leaves the Big Easy.



The pace becomes more frenetic as the locale transitions to NewYork and more

eclectic, as one might expect. Here, the musicians range from an a capella

doo-wop band called the Inspirations to the sci-fi subway sounds of Simon 7 to

old school blues and anything and everything in between. And it is here that a

blind singer named Robert Bradley lays over the vocal track for "Playing for

Change Blues."



It's a beautiful, powerful climax to the film, and filmed exquisitely, with the

various musicians playing their various parts in their various locales, but

united by the common thread of the groove, the groove of the universal language

of music.



Playing for Change serves not only as a look at an unapologetic musical

lifestyle, but as a metaphor for life itself. These are the real, if unsung,

American Idols.



PLEASE NOTE: PLAYING FOR CHANGE: PEACE THROUGH MUSIC is the second film directed

by Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls. Their previous film, titled PLAYING FOR

CHANGE: A CINEMATIC DISCOVERY OF STREET MUSIC was released in 2005.



http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/profile2.html
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