Music of the People

Music of the People is a film project created, directed, and produced by the Sixth Floor Trio!

Here’s what it’s all about: We believe that music from around the world and across time is connected by the same basic, fundamental relationships of pitch and rhythm that give it its power and significance as an art form. In other words, despite the vast range of styles of music on the planet, there is an underlying “musical language” that allows people from completely different backgrounds and experiences to understand and love all (good!) music. This belief drives our mission to play any music that we like – if we love the music, the Sixth Floor Trio plays it!

The video project puts this theory into practice. We choose a location with a rich musical folk culture, and we explore this folk style of music (and experience the local area) to try to understand what makes it unique. At the end of each episode we challenge a local folk group to a very friendly “challenge” or “throwdown” and see if we can perform a piece in the style of music we’ve learned! So the question is… “Can three classically-trained musicians play any style of music from around the world?” We think we can, and along the way we’ll show-off some of the truly awesome music of the world and their respective locales!

If you’re still wondering what this might look like, imagine the amazing and mouth-watering Food Network show Throwdown With Bobby Flay. And mix that with Travel Channel’s No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. This is the food equivalent of what we’re doing with music!

So… what is the status of the Music of the People project? Our friends at the Knight Foundation gave us a generous grant to film a mini-sode (around 15 minutes) as a pilot/pitch-piece! We choose the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina as the first featured folk region – this area hosts some of the richest, most distinctive folk culture in the world, and the Bluegrass music this region produced is one of the hallmark American musical styles. We’re in post-production on this episode and will make it public in March 2012!