Grammy-winner Keb’ Mo’ will join Todd Park Mohr and musicians from around the world for Thursday’s Playing for Change benefit.
The Playing for Change Foundation, which helps build music and art schools around the world in places that desperately need them, has an ambitious concert on tap for Thursday, Nov. 8. In addition to Grammy-winner Keb’ Mo’ and Todd Park Mohr from Big Head Todd and the Monsters, musicians from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nepal, India, Tibet, Los Angeles, New Orleans and other places will unite at the Paramount Theatre to raise money for the organization.
We recently spoke with executive director Whitney K. Burditt, who has also produced some of the “Playing for Change” films (which take viewers around the world to check out various street-recorded musicians), about the foundation’s first-ever show and what it hopes to do — and say — with its considerable efforts…
Why did you choose Denver for your first benefit show?
My partner and I have family in Denver (Burditt’s middle initial K. stands for Kroenke, the family that owns the Pepsi Center and other properties). We went through Kroenke Sports to use the Paramount, but also had a lot of support from (promoters) AEG Live and Live Nation in securing our talent and the space, which was donated. And Chuck Morris at AEG has been a big help — he got Todd Park Mohr from Big Head Todd for us. Denver’s such a geat music city and we’ve had a lot of support from the Starz Film Festival, which is opening same night.
And this is Playing for Change’s first benefit show, right?
Right, our very first. We hope to do more for the foundation, which we just launched. Maybe one every six months or so.
I know Playing for Change has produced some films, too.
Two so far. For our second film we went around the world filming musicians. In going around the world we were able to ask these communities, “What do you need? How can we help you?” In one place in South Africa they needed a school because it was literally a shack that had fallen over. So we set up an after-school program with teachers and things like that. At another program in Johannesburg we set up a writing school. They had a budget already written there, they just didn’t have the money.
Todd Park Mohr, of Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Photo from BigHeadTodd.com.
Does your organization work all over the world?
Yeah. In India and Nepal we’ve encouraged a lot of Tibetan refugees. In fact, we’re bringing over a band of brothers from there. It’s their first time on an airplane and in the U.S., and we’re going to be recording an album in Boulder while they’re in town.
What’s it called? Is it traditional Tibetan music?
They’re The Exile Brothers, but it’s blues-influenced music. They dress like westerners. It’s interesting to see how our influence has been on them, musically and socially.
How did the idea for all this come about originally?
I live in L.A. and one day someone said, “You should meet my friend Mark. He has this great idea, and he’s a Grammy-winning sound engineer.” His idea was to record street musicians live and develop a portable recording studio. I met him and thought it was a great idea, and had always been a big fan of people playing music on the street. So we went in together and figured out a way to record these musicians on the street with studio-quality sound. We went to L.A., New York — all over. The immediacy of it is so cool.
Is there a certain type of person you tend to record?
The people you find are just amazing. When we started to do the first (film) we didn’t know what we’d find. Homeless people? Runaways? We didn’t know. But the talent is just immense, especially in places like New Orleans. We can’t wait to come back there and see how it’s changed.
What’s one of the more novel things you’ve tried?
One really cool thing we did in both films, and are excited to keep doing, is build songs around the world. We start with a guy singing the blues on the Santa Monica promenade in California, singing “One Love,” then we have Robert Luti playing the dobro in New Orleans, then an entire chorus of people singing in South Africa, and so on.
That does sound really cool. So what’s up after this?
Post-this, we’re waiting to find out if we can premiere our film at Sundance — we have about a week for finding out about that. And with this Denver show, if we do well on ticket sales and the silent auction we’ll have enough money to really get focused on the programs and schools.
