ilovemylife: NOTHING CAN BRING US TOGETHER LIKE MUSIC CAN

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED Saturday, October 25, at 6:30 p.m. When I posted this last night the video for the Playing For Change segment of the show hadn't been uploaded yet on the PBS website. It is now and the link is just below. It is a must see.

Tonight on PBS' Bill Moyers had two guests on the Journal

JAMES K. GALBRAITH
Galbraith is the author of six books, the most recent, The Predator State: How the Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. See the video.

MARK JOHNSON
PLAYING FOR CHANGE
Bill Moyers talks with Mark Johnson, the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music.

See this segment of the show. I am quite certain you will be impressed with Mark Johnson. Upon asking Mark if people said he was naive, he answered "The only chance we have is to come together, to inspire..." The following is taken from the PBS website:

Playing For Change - Peace Through Peace with Mark Johnson

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, 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.

The unique composition of the film which has musicians playing together yet in their own traditions, made Johnson think anew about what world music means:

Just thinking in my mind... what would be unique instruments to juxtapose against each other that had never been heard before: a talking drum and a tabla, they're very similar but they never really come together, or a sitar and a dobro, very similar but how often do you hear them play together? The idea was to go to places that would have some sort of instruments that they could add to the spectrum of the global music that we were trying to find.

The Playing For Change Foundation provides resources (facilities, supplies, educational programs, etc) to musicians and communities around the world. The foundation is working with South African poet Lesego Rampolokenga to build the Mehlo Arts Center in Johannesburg, South Africa and building and supporting the Ntonga Music School in the South African township of Guguletu. In addition, Playing For Change is working to enhance and rebuild Tibetan refugee centers in Dharamasala, India and Kathmandu, Nepal. You can find news about their benefit concerts and programs, and listen to additional songs, on their Web site: Playingforchange.com (for Flash users) or Playingforchange.org.

Guest photo by Robin Holland

Published October 24, 2008.

Today on Oprah, Il Divo sang this song - Amazing Grace. They were in an airport in Mexico on the way to Europe when her staff person called them - already had their luggage checked in. But it was Oprah, so they delayed their trips home and came to Chicago to sing this one song at the opening of the show October 24, 2008. Besides their new CD includes this song and it is released on November 18, 2008 and at amazon.com you can order Promise by Il-Divo for $9.99.

Not bad karma - getting promotion of their new release around the world on Oprah.

Il Divo in Hong Kong 2005 from left to right: Sébastien, Carlos, David and Urs

Band members are David Miller, Sebastien Izambard, Urs Buhler and Carlos Marín.

Their debut self-titled album has sold over 5 million copies - smashing Led Zeppelin's 25 year-old record of being the only band to achieve a number 1 album without a single release.

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