Musical Soup for the Soul

On playingforchange.org ,a young child with a toothy smile and a pair of headphones glued into his ears,smiles at you. A featured video,with John Lennon Foundation’s logo that reads – Power to the People – grabs attention. As you take a minute and play the video,a story unfolds. It shows how the Playing for Change Foundation spreads peace through music. In its seven-year-long journey,the organisation has united several musical voices from around the globe. And on September 17,it held its first annual Playing for Change Day in Mumbai,in collaboration with Live from Console. Indian musicians and groups K C Loy,Airport,Bombay Bassment and Bay Beat Collective participated.

The theme of the day was ‘Power to The People’. A video showed Clarence Bekker,a street musician from Suriname,South Africa,who is now a renowed singer,humming the popular Lennon track,Imagine. The tune deviates from the original and the video moves over different faces and voices. Fernando Vidal from Rio De Janeiro plays with vibrant strokes of the electric guitar. As the story unravels,many other musicians from various parts of the world join in – Rajhesh Vaidhya and R Selvaraj from Chennai,Gingger Shankar from Kolkata,Yu Hatakeyama from Tokyo,James Gadson from Los Angeles,Noel Schajris from Buenos Aires and Ijeoma Njaka from Akokwa,Nigeria. It ends at the Playing for Change Foundation centre at Tintale Village,Nepal.

And just like the video,the programme in India drew inspiration from John Lennon’s activism. With the support of Theatre Within and Yoko Ono,the initiative was a fundraiser to help the foundation build music schools,support music teachers and also purchase instruments. Held across 40 countries,the event raised more than $50,000.

It is the foundation’s theme of working beyond borders that has captured artistes in our country. After establishing music schools in Nepal,Mali,Ghana,Rwanda and South Africa,it is now wooing India. “We are currently vetting projects in several countries,including India. At this moment,we are still working on the details of the project but we do hope that one of our next programmes will be in India,” says Shauna Murray,Director,Communications and Special Events,Playing for Change Foundation.

The foundation set foot in India six years ago,when founders Mark Johnson and Enzo Buono decided to film a documentary featuring undiscovered artistes. Called Peace Through Music,the documentary canvassed artistes dedicated to music from around the globe. The result: a host of Indian musicians have contributed to the foundation’s music base and produced some of the finest works. A comprehensive list includes The Exile Brothers from Dharamsala,Venkat from Varadayapalem,Pandit Janardan Mitta,Rajhesh Vaidhya,the Oneness Choir,TIPA (The Tibetan Institute of Performing arts),Tsering Gyurmey,and Gingger Shankar.

Saindhavi Srivatsan,who was part of the Oneness Choir and helped re-record Chanda Mama with Buono,says,”Buono contacted us when we were involved with The Oneness Movement in Chennai. That was a few years ago. It was only after a while that we realised what it meant to be a part of this movement.” In fact,in July last year,Saindhavi,along with Vinaya from The Oneness Choir,contributed to the Redemption Song,originally composed by Bob Marley. Renowed sitarist,Pandit Janardan Mitta,says his relation with the project extends to Imagine and an original compostion,Satchita. The latter embarks on a musical journey from Brazil to India. In a similar vein,The Exile Brother’s contribution to One Love also gave the edition a very Indian charm.