Playing For Change at New Orleans Jazz Fest

Tuesday May 10, 2011

From The New Orleans Times-Picayune

New Orleans Jazz Fest homecoming for Grandpa Elliott and Playing For Change
By: Dave Walker

The Playing For Change phenomenon, which came to the New Orleans Jazz Fest 2011 Gentilly Stage on Sunday (May 8), began as a high-minded project aimed at uniting the world by song via mash-up video performances recorded around the world.

It has resulted in a PBS documentary, one album with another on the way, good works in Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa and elsewhere, and Internet superstardom for New Orleans street performer “Grandpa” Elliott Small.

Small’s stirring, gospel-tinged version of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” closed Sunday’s set. Introducing it, fellow performer Clarence Bekker said the continent-hopping YouTube video of the song has had 30 million plays. The Playing for Change Band (which also played Margaritaville over the second Jazz Fest weekend) next performs at a music festival in Morocco. An extended global tour will support the May 31 release of a second CD, “PFC 2: Songs Around the World.”

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Higher Ground	4:46	Playing For Change
Redemption Song	4:10	Playing For Change
Stand By Me	6:04	Playing For Change

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