Instruments make change

SOL PAVONY

I play the banjo. I’ve had the banjo since I was a teenager in the Bronx. The first time I had it in my hands, I hurried up to the roof of my apartment building that overlooked the Major Degan Expressway. That night, the lights of the city were shining like jewels and the noise of the traffic below came rushing up like a river. I had my banjo. I took it out of its case carefully, and plucked a few strings. Before long, I found myself strumming madly and dancing wildly and shouting at the top of my lungs. I guess you could say I was happy.

I was in a state of ecstasy, with passionate and ecstatic communion. With whom? I don’t know, but I was inspired. I felt a connection with the world, with all of humanity, with all singers and musicians everywhere, with all artists who walk the earth. I was in contact with a true essence that came from deep on the inside. Call it God, soul or spirit. It doesn’t matter; it was real. I’ve held on to the essence of that experience all my life every time I pick up the banjo.

My good friend, Janos Maté, was recently moved by a YouTube video he saw called Landfill Harmonic. It’s short. You should see it. It’s about children in a poor town in Paraguay who live near a landfill, and who also love to play music. The problem is that an instrument for them costs as much as the house they live in, so what they do is scour the landfill and make their own instruments with whatever they find. They play classical music on the strangest-looking instruments you’ve ever seen, but it sounds great.

When he told me this story, I recalled my rooftop experience. Then I saw the video. When a young girl in the video said, “Without music my life would be worthless,” I knew what she meant. I got her. I connected. Not only that, but she seemed to be speaking directly to me. Without knowing me, she got me too. She touched me soul to soul.

Janos got her, too, but he also got inspired to act. He put together something called Instruments for Change, and went over to Prussin Music on Broadway and suggested they do the project together. Out of that, something phenomenal is happening. Connections are being made and the project is touching people’s hearts.

Prussin’s has become a drop-off centre for those old instruments collecting dust. They’re heading down to Paraguay. It’s like a chain-gang call and response stretching across the hemisphere. A child on the landfill calls, and halfway across the world comes a response. The power of music stretches across time and space. I can just imagine their experience touching an authentic instrument for the first time.

When I play the banjo, it’s personal. I wail away in the minor key, clawhammering an old-timey tune from the Appalachians or the Ozarks, or eastern Europe. My voice and banjo call out into the beyond, puncturing the stratosphere, and touching that essence of what makes us human. A lone sound rises up from an old soul somewhere in Vancouver and joins a lone sound from a soul somewhere in Paraguay. Millions of lone sounds join them from around the planet as they rise. They celebrate and praise the essence of humanity and what makes each of us human. I know we are not alone and I know we are all essentially connected. We just need to get inspired every now and then.

From Janos, I recently received this report of the latest developments with Instruments for Change, with a goal of June as the date of the shipment to Paraguay.

1. We have offers for more than 80 instruments

2. We have a Facebook page: facebook.com/instrumentsforchange

3. Prussin Music on West Broadway is generously donating several dozen instruments and has agreed to be a depot for donated instruments

4. Prussin Music is making available several hugely discounted instruments that donors can purchase in part or in whole

5. The Paraguayan consul in Vancouver and the ambassador in Ottawa are working with Instruments for Change

So get inspired. Find out what’s happening. To view the video Landfill Harmonic, visit youtube.com/watch?v=fXynrsrTKbI. To donate through Prussin Music, visit prussinmusic.com/instruments-for-change-donation-drive.

Sol Pavony is a Vancouver educator, storyteller, spiritual seeker in the Chassidic tradition and banjo player.

^TOP