Archive for December, 2008

New Amnesty International Song and Video The Price of Silence Makes Urgent Call for Universal Human Rights

December 9, 2008 at 5:49 pm · Filed under 2. General News

Andrea Echeverri & Hector Buitrago from the video Price of Silence

Andrea Echeverri & Hector Buitrago appear in the video Price of Silence

(New York, NY) — A young woman, scaling the Himalayas on foot, flees the Chinese work camp where she was born, her tiny son in tow. A boy, forced to fight in Sudan’s bloody civil war at age six, winds up in a refugee camp where he regains his dignity, but not his childhood. An outspoken singer is compelled to leave Zimbabwe in the wake of police intimidation at her concerts and a pervasive atmosphere of political and economic repression.

These are some of the real-life stories of the artists who created The Price of Silence, a collaborative project marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and produced by Link TV: Television Without Borders.

The song, based on the Grammy-winning Colombian group Aterciopelados‘ “Canción Protesta,” is produced by Andres Levin, co-founder of Music Has No Enemies.  A special EP featuring the full track along with a radio edit, a Spanish version and the original “Canción Protesta” song is available for $1.99 exclusively at iTunes starting today, Dec. 9. Net proceeds will benefit Amnesty International.

The video, directed by Joshua Atesh Litle and set in the United Nations General Assembly, is an urgent plea to renew the commitment to human rights everywhere.  It will premiere nationally on Link TV and will air regularly on the channel starting Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 9:45 p.m. ET/6:45 p.m. PT (available on DIRECTV channel 375, DISH Network channel 9410 and select urban cable systems). Link TV will also stream the video in its entirety at www.LinkTV.org. Amnesty International USA will stream the video at www.ProtectTheHuman.org.

“Sixty years after the original signing, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has proven to be a true agent of change, helping lay the groundwork for rights-based movements worldwide,” said Larry Cox, executive director for Amnesty International USA.  “Still, each day throughout the world there are countless instances in which basic rights are being denied.  Our only chance to turn the tide is by raising our voices in unison, then taking decisive action. Amnesty International has proven that grassroots activism works.  Through this video, we call on citizens of the world to rededicate themselves to bring justice to all.”

Fueled by an irresistible beat, The Price of Silence brings together a globe-spanning juggernaut of renowned artists, including musicians who have experienced human rights violations and all of whom are activists: Stephen Marley (Jamaica), Natalie Merchant (U.S.), Julieta Venegas (Mexico), Aterciopelados (Colombia), Chali 2na from Jurassic 5 (U.S.), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Chiwoniso (Zimbabwe), Emmanuel Jal (Sudan), Yungchen Lhamo (Tibet/U.S.), Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Natacha Atlas (U.K./Egypt), Rachid Taha (Algeria/France), Kiran Ahluwalia (Canada/India),and Cucu Diamantes and Pedro Martinez of Yerba Buena (U.S./Cuba).  Actor Laurence Fishburne sets up the song with a prologue written for the video by poet Alicia Partnoy, who spent two years in prison during Argentina’s Dirty War.

Even more compelling than the list of musicians who donated their talents to the project is the silent list of those who wanted to participate. “We contacted artists who had the will, but ultimately couldn’t get involved because they or their families would have been in danger,” explains Steven Lawrence, vice president for music and cultural programming for Link TV, who developed and produced the video. “In one case, we couldn’t even directly mention the project in our emails to a certain Central Asian musician because of government surveillance. We had to communicate in code.”

The first person to record for the project was Emmanuel Jal, Sudanese rapper and former child soldier, who recorded the day after he spoke to the U.N.General Assembly about his brutal, lost childhood. His personal plea set the standard for everything that followed. While artists like Jal, Angelique Kidjo, Natalie Merchant, Aterciopelados, and Stephen Marley (second son of Bob) address human rights straight up, many of the other artists express themselves through their own languages and traditions.

Tibetan exile Yungchen Lhamo sings a Buddhist prayer for peace. Zimbabwean singer Chiwoniso shouts out for freedom in Shona. Rachid Taha and Kiran Ahluwalia are interwoven, singing respectively in Arabic and Urdu, followed later by Natacha Atlas who adds her arching Arabic melisma to the track. Yerba Buena brought a joyful Yoruban chant to the mix. And Andrea Echeverri of Aterciopelados wrote a Spanish chorus and two verses, which she delivers along with Julieta Venegas.

Jal is not the only MC on The Price of Silence. Hugh Masekela, the South African jazz icon, who was an exile from his homeland for many years during apartheid, contributes a rap-like chant filmed on a roof in Johannesburg. And American hip-hop artist Chali 2na adds his own penetrating bass voice, urging the U.N. delegates to “Jump up” and “end the killing and the genocide.”  The Price of Silence is about more than identifying the wrongs; it’s about the strength of the human spirit to sing out and right them.

Though the artists address difficult and painful subjects, a positive, life-affirming quality radiates through their performances, as the video turns the U.N. General Assembly hall into a dance party for global human rights. Moved by the musicians’ message, the U.N. delegates in the video first listen then are gradually overtaken by the energy and message of the song until they are dancing and singing along.

The video will be launched online and at events worldwide beginning the first week in December, including at a meeting of The Elders in Paris on Dec. 6 to celebrate the “Every Human Has Rights” campaign with Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan, former President Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, and other world leaders.

# # #

Produced by Link TV: Television Without Borders for Amnesty International.

Directed by Joshua Atesh Litle
Produced by Steven Lawrence
Line Producer: Michael Owen
Associate Producer: Michal Shapiro
Music Producer: Andres Levin for Music Has No Enemies
Music Executive Producer: Pilar O’Leary for Music Has No Enemies with additional staff support from Paloma Blanca Creative Enterprises
Digital U.N. General Assembly Produced by The Syndicate
Additional visual effects courtesy of Phoenix Editorial Designs

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Folk and Blues Great Odetta Passes at 77

December 3, 2008 at 10:40 am · Filed under 3. People, Places & Miscellany

Odetta Gordon 1930-2008

From Odetta’s friend & manager Doug Yeager  (12/03/08) :

Dear Family and Friends of Odetta,

The Grand Lady Odetta passed this evening at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.   For more than a decade she fought the brave fight with chronic heart disease and pulmonary fibrosis in her lungs.  The tribute concert in her honor on March 24, 2007 in Washington was supposed to be her swan song.  At the time, her doctors said she could never leave her bed with oxygen for the remainder of her life.  However, she got out of that bed and went on to give dozens of concerts around the world since that time.   Just seven weeks ago, she performed before tens of thousands of fans at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with Emily Lou Harris, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett and Wavy Gravy sitting mesmerized below her at the stage.  Even though she had been getting weaker through the month she refused to cancel any of her upcoming concerts.  However, on October 31st, after returning from concerts in Toronto she entered the hospital for tests.  The next day she went into kidney failure.  For the next three and one half weeks she battled on – at all times lucid, and determined to sing at Obama’s Inauguration.   She went into cardiac arrest this evening.  Her old heart just couldn’t fight any more.   Her spirit, her will and her determination were greater than anyone I had ever known.   I don’t think Joe Louis could have lasted one round with Odetta!

Eighteen months ago, Odetta and I were invited to the publisher’s office of the New York Times to give her oral history obituary.   The arrangement with them was that we would not tell anyone about the oral history obituary, that they would be the first to publish her obituary, and that the readers’ could then view the oral obit Odetta gave by clicking on the New York Times website.   Because I didn’t get back from the hospital after Odetta’s transition until 10:00 pm tonight and wasn’t able to speak to Tim Weiner, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who interviewed her until 10:45 pm, I don’t think it will be making the front page, but she has been given royal treatment.


May Odetta’s luminous spirit and volcanic voice from the heavens live on for the ages.  Though I know she will always be with me, I will be missing her. . .

Love,
Doug

***********

Thanks to Toronto area journalist Dana Cook, who compiled this selection of published homages to the great “Lady O”:

From Joan Baez:

One night the Queen of Folk, Odetta, came to the club [The Gate of Horn]. I was a nervous wreck waiting to see her and was at the bar when I realized that she had arrived. I watched her for a minute from across the room. She was big as a mountain and black as night. Her skin looked like velvet. She wore massive earrings that dangled and swung and flashed, and her dress looked like a flowing embroidered tent. She had a split between her front teeth which showed all the time because her face, between expressions of worry, surprise, concern, and mock anger, would shift back into a smile big enough to match the rest of her. Her chin jutted out round and full of dimples when she laughed, and I thought she was the most dignified person I’d ever seen. To overcome the panic welling up in my chest, I went up to her and flat out did an imitation of her singing, “Another Man Done Gone.” She looked surprised and then pleased, and then she enveloped me in her great velvet arms. I felt about six years old, and my heart didn’t get back to normal for a week. (Chicago, 1959)
from And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir by Joan Baez (Summit Books, 1987)
*          *          *

From Bob Dylan:

… The area around the university [of Minnesota] was known as Dinkytown, which was kind of like a little Village, untypical from the rest of conventional Minneapolis. It was  mostly filled with Victorian houses that were being used as student apartments…I found the local record store in the heart of Dinkytown. What I was looking for were folk music records and the first one I saw was Odetta on the Tradition label. I went into the listening booth to hear it. Odetta was great. I had never heard of her until then. She was a deep singer, powerful strumming and a hammering-on style of playing. I learned almost every song off the record right then and there, even borrowing the hammering-on style. (late 1950s)
from Chronicles: Volume One, by Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
*          *          *
From Nina Simone:

…I’d walk around the Village, stopping off at Rienzi’s Coffee House on McDougal for iced coffee and coffee ice cream. I made friends with Odetta and I’d see her there and we’d sit and watch the world go by, talk, may be shop, but usually just relax. (New York, early 1960s)
from I Put A Spell On You: The Autobiography, by Nina Simone (Ebury Press, 1991)
*          *          *

from Richie Havens:

Odetta was in the Village too. “The Queen of Folk Music,” Odetta became a lifelong friend and personal influence whose powerful, luxurious voice sang out on behalf of solo women performers when that was not the most popular thing to be. Odetta sang songs of the people and told wonderful stories. She was not just a singer, she was an educator, and the way she effortlessly performed that dual role made a strong impression on me. (New York, 1963)
from they can’t hide us anymore, by Richie Havens with Steve Davidowitz (Avon Books, 1999)

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