majnuunNavid
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World Music Project Video
I had the pleasure of being part of this huge project which was very hard to coordinate. It took well over a year to complete.
There were so many musicians recording with various quality equipment, it's amazing it even worked out. That is thanks to the service of a
professional audio engineer.
I recorded amongst the Totem Poles that represent the culture of the First Nations here in Canada.
The idea is basically:
"One World
One Song
One Sound
One Heart
The WORLD MUSIC PROJECT is a collaboration of musicians from all over the world, playing a whole variety of common and rare instruments, working
together on one song.
Together, they hope to show how music, creativity and love can unite us as a people, beyond boundaries of geography, culture and language."
Please share your thoughts on it, and share on social media if you like it.
https://youtu.be/ix_4CmWprxE
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Jody Stecher
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My response is not going to win me many friends but it is true and honest.
The image in this video that made the deepest impression on me is of the cellist playing in front of the hotel in Florida. What is its name? Colony.
That sums up the whole project. Colonize the world's people and say we are one.
One song? One what, really? This song and this video, establishes the model of music-as-product, as a unifying world force. No thanks. Sure, there is
decent cinematography, and heroic sound engineering……... but on what? What about the song itself? Where are the musical values? Musically, this
is a piece of pop fluff. It's a set of chord changes with a vague melody and poorly wrought quasi-heroic words.
For cryin' out loud, Navid, the song is in ENGLISH!! Imagine if it were in Inuktitut, or Kurdish, or Oriya. Then we can begin to talk about world
unity. The intentions of the producers and director may have been pure but what is the result of their efforts? It is nothing but cultural
imperialism, even if not deliberately so.
Show me an international collaboration where the song form is not of a dominant world power, and not a disposable (but not biodegradable ) plastic
vessel, and we can start to talk about one heart and one world with some meaning.
Long live local music!
And while I'm ranting: why is the buzuk seen but barely heard? Why is it covered up by the processed sound of the rhythm track?What message does this
send? Why do bass and drums dominate throughout? How is this one heart/one world? Whose world? The world of the conqueror shoving its model down the
throats of the conquered?
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oudistcamp
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Not too different from 'We Are The World" etc.
Can't hear the baglama saz at all.
Not sure how deep this will go into uniting people.
It may have united the musicians......
Nice travelogue.....I think I will go to Japan next....
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Jody Stecher
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Quote: Originally posted by oudistcamp  | Not too different from 'We Are The World" etc.
Not sure how deep this will go into uniting people.
It may have united the musicians......
Nice travelogue.....I think I will go to Japan next.... |
I had a similar reaction to We Are The World. It was so false.
Musicians are united to the same extent (not much) every time there is a recording project in which digital files are added to each other and a whole
is assembled from parts that were recorded in different places at different times. This happens many times every day. It's business as usual. If the
musicians are simpatico there can be good results. Why make a fake unity thing out it? It's just assembly style recording which yields results that
range from horrific to gorgeous.
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majnuunNavid
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| Quote: Originally posted by Jody Stecher | My response is not going to win me many friends but it is true and honest.
One song? One what, really? This song and this video, establishes the model of music-as-product, as a unifying world force. No thanks. Sure, there is
decent cinematography, and heroic sound engineering……... but on what? What about the song itself? Where are the musical values? Musically, this
is a piece of pop fluff. It's a set of chord changes with a vague melody and poorly wrought quasi-heroic words.
Long live local music!
And while I'm ranting: why is the buzuk seen but barely heard? Why is it covered up by the processed sound of the rhythm track?What message does this
send? Why do bass and drums dominate throughout? How is this one heart/one world? Whose world? The world of the conqueror shoving its model down the
throats of the conquered? |
I couldn't agree with you more Jody.
I hated the song, but liked the idea of doing a collaboration with musicians from all over. So I did it just for fun. It was very limited effort on my
part. Thought I did put a lot of thought into what I was playing. And then they cut it up and rearranged some of it.
I didn't have any say or consultation with the over-arching idea of the song.
I would have liked to see the solo singers sing in their own languages.
And what's up with the bagpipe player playing 5 notes and then nothing...?
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Jody Stecher
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Oh my! I had that happen once. I was filmed playing music that was carefully put together and well-rehearsed. But then it was cut up and put together
by the film maker to create an ending phrase that made no musical sense and which I would not/ could not have played but it was the required number of
seconds long. On the other hand it has happened on two occasions that a clever record producer (two different ones) took something i played in one
context and imported it to another (one was even another song in another key) and made it into something that I would not/ could not have played
because I wasn't smart enough to think of it, and it was brilliant.
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DivanMakam
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I also agree with Jody Stecher in every aspect.
But of course this has nothing to do with you majnuunNavid, as you played nicely. Sadly you can't hear it well but yeah, not your fault.
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