The Soul of the Streets,

The Rhythm of America

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Simply put, Playing for Change is a documentary about American street musicians. That being said, I would hasten to add that some works cannot be "simply put," that they transcend such artificial categorizations to become something universal, something that speaks to the collective soul.

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Playing for Change is such a work.

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This is not a gritty documentary focusing on the hardships of making a living on the streets-- rather, it is a colorful celebration of what is at the core of the American Dream: the pursuit of happiness. Directed by Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls, Playing for Change examines a central, but too often dismissed, aspect of American culture-- the music of the streets.

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And it does so admirably. Linked by the motif of a single groove-- a percussion riff laid down by a cajone (a sort of Brazilian steel drum)-- the film is part road trip, part slice-of-life vignette documentary and all music. It begins innocuously enough, with a folksy singer named Lily Holbrook playing on a street corner in Santa Monica, and that sets the tone for the rest of the film. Immediately, any preconceptions we may have had about street musicians as homeless panhandlers are dispelled. Instead, we are presented with a well-scrubbed, articulate young woman who has taken to performing on the streets as a means of overcoming her insecurities--and to sell a few CDs in the process.

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Deeper into Los Angeles, we're introduced to the Carribbean group Los Penginos, and it is here that the plot, such as it is, of Playing for Change is set. After the cajone beat is recorded, the theme of the movie becomes a quest to travel cross-country to produce a jam that will eventually become the movie's centerpiece song, "Playing for Change Blues."

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Filmed in 2003 (but only released to DVD last April), the film moves from southern California to a pre-Katrina New Orleans, where street musicians abound in genres from Dixieland to bluegrass. It is here that Playing for Change is most poignant, if only in retrospect. There are references from one musician about Mayor Nagin wanting to "clean up" Jackson Square to make way for a more "modern" New Orleans. But more importantly, there is the music, the vibrancy of diverse styles all coming together in a relatively small area in a way that may never happen again. A Flying V blues riff is laid over the beat, and a slide guitar over that, before the film leaves the Big Easy.

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The pace becomes more frenetic as the locale transitions to New York, and more eclectic, as one might expect. Here, the musicians range from an acapella doo-wop band called the Inspirations to the sci-fi subway sounds of Simon 7 to old school blues to anything and everything in between. And it is here that a blind singer named Robert Bradley lays over the vocal track for "Playing for Change Blues."

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It's a beautiful, powerful climax to the movie, and filmed exquisitely, with the various musicians playing their various parts in their various locales, but united by the common thread of the groove, the groove of the universal language of music.

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Playing for Change serves not only as a look at an unapologetic musical lifestyle, but as a metaphor for life itself. These are the real, if unsung, American Idols.