One day, music engineer Mark Johnson was in the subway system in New York City when he chanced upon a musical performance of several monks. They were in robes, “all painted in white,” drawing a big crowd. Everybody was enthralled.
“I had an epiphany,” Johnson said. “I saw a homeless man next to a businessman, next to a little girl.”
The realization came instantly that he’d experienced something special, a pivotal moment. The realization was: “I’ll never be able to record whatever that just was…in a studio.”
Johnson had spent years at NYC’s Hit Factory studio, known for recording the biggest icons of the biz. He’d had the joy of engineering music for everyone from hip hop artists to Paul Simon, but suddenly saw an opportunity to use his skill set to bring things to an even more meaningful level.
“When you record music, you’re there for people’s happiest moments of their lives,” he explained. Johnson soon asked himself: “Why not bring the studio to the people in the streets?”
That was the very beginning of the Playing For Change project. In 2002, Johnson began to travel widely, peeking into the nooks and crannies of raw, authentic roots music scenes abroad. Along with Playing For Change co-founder Whitney Kroenke Silverstein, they recorded musicians of all types and varied cultures, from Israel to Pakistan to Angola. Soon, a documentary film followed, chronicling the artistic lives of these street musicians worldwide. During it all, Johnson realized music creates the perfect introduction for entering the worlds of struggling people.
“The music brought the trust,” he explained, adding, "None of this means anything if we don’t give back to the future.”
After getting to know musicians via the sonic experience, he’d ask more concrete questions about what was lacking in their local communities. Soon, the work also took shape as a nonprofit, the Playing For Change Foundation, managed by Kroenke Silverstein. One of its first charitable projects was building a school in South Africa. Johnson described how he and the locals saw the need for a school focused on music, art, and dance.
“Maybe instead of the next child being a gangster,” he said, “maybe they’ll be the next Nelson Mandela…because someone believed in them.”
In addition to other charitable projects, the Playing For Change Foundation has built 27 schools. One place that has received a lot of attention is Nepal, where the foundation has built three schools and given support to initiatives such as the Mother Society. Johnson explained its vitally important goal: “Women travel on foot through the Himalayan Mountains to teach their daughters about sex trafficking and false marriages.” The society has delivered education, built neighborhood watch groups, and provided other resources to Nepali women.
Johnson sees music as critical to the process and part and parcel of dealing with struggle.
“We humans invented music to help us get through conflict resolution and make deeper connections,” he explained.
About 15 years ago, he had yet another good idea, intended to connect people from far reaches of the globe; it’s all about genre-crossing and diverse collaboration to the max.
“Why don’t we bring these musicians who have never met and put them together on the same stage?” he asked. In a sense, the goal was to “reinvent” world music. Even while speaking in different tongues, the performers found a way to speak the “universal language.” They’d blend ideas and learn from each other’s “musical styles, tastes, and inspirations.” Johnson didn’t want world music to represent one culture, one faraway corner of the world – he wanted it to represent MANY world corners in one band simultaneously.
The Playing For Change Band has been touring for 15 years, and Johnson said he has personally been to over 75 countries with the band, all while recording musicians. Right now, the band consists of 10 musicians from 10 different countries coming together onstage.
An example of an upcoming Playing For Change project is recording a new version of Bob Marley’s iconic hit, “No Woman, No Cry.” It features various collaborators and a video that’s being finalized for a mid-summer release. Fans of American roots who want to explore the ties between mountain music and African instruments (the precursor of the banjo was from Africa) would enjoy the 2020 Playing For Change video for the Stevie Wonder song “Higher Ground.” It features banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, percussionist Sheila E., and a lengthy roster of contributors from around the globe, including musicians from Senegal, Mali, Brazil and more.
“People don’t have to believe that they have such a divided world,” Johnson explained, adding that Playing For Change is about “connecting people to the humanity we all share.” He summarized, “People think the world is so full of fear when it’s really so full of love.”