FODfest (Friends of Daniel Pearl Festival)

It started out as a backyard jam to remember a departed friend, but quickly grew into a tour of the US, and now, Taiwan.

The Friends of Daniel Pearl Festival group, or FODfest, celebrates the life of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2002 by extremists while on assignment in Pakistan.

Pearl was an avid musician who played violin and mandolin in several bands.

Invited by Taipei-based journalist Sean Scanlan, who has organized Daniel Pearl World Music Days in Taiwan since 2002, and the American Institute in Taiwan, the group appears in Taipei tonight at Huashan 1914 Creative Park (??1914) for the local edition of the annual global event started by Pearl’s parents seven years ago.

FODfest is a crew of six musicians and multimedia producers who perform and organize open jam sessions for local musicians, with the goal of “strengthening community through music.”

This aspiration was an important part of Pearl’s life, says close friend and former bandmate, FODfest founder and singer-songwriter Todd Mack.

“This was a guy, no matter where he was, he would just go find music,” he said. “He’d go find jam sessions, he’d go find people to play with, and you know, that’s what we’ve created and I think he would be an active participant.”

FODfest started five years ago as a remembrance party in Mack’s backyard in western Massachusetts. It was a reunion of old friends, and they did what anyone would do to honor a musician friend: they got their instruments out and jammed.

“I could tell there was something magical going on,” Mack said. “It wasn’t about me or any of the individual people that were involved, but it was just about the collective whole.”

Mack felt compelled to see if this “vibe,” inspired by Pearl’s love for connecting with people through music, would “translate” in bars, clubs and at festivals.

FODfest hit the road for the first time three years ago with an eight-show tour of the US east coast. The tour exceeded expectations, said Mack. Word quickly spread and FODfest’s tour dates doubled the following year and expanded to the west coast.

FODfest shows are based on an “open jam” format. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to perform. The FODfest crew performs as a band as needed, but they put the spotlight on local musicians wherever they go.

Mack says FODfest shows tend to foster new friendships and working partnerships among musicians who often meet for the first time on stage.

Pretty much anything goes in terms of musical styles and genres.

Pearl “was one of the most eclectic players I’ve ever played with,” said Mack, who first met him in Atlanta, where they played in several rock bands together. “He loved Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt [French jazz violinist and guitarist] and he loved [Led] Zeppelin and AC/DC and the [Grateful] Dead and he was a huge bluegrass fan — he was really all over the map.”

“And the fact that he was wielding a violin or a fiddle didn’t ever stop him from getting up and playing with anybody – even a headbanger rock band. Nothing scared him off. It was very cool.”

Tonight’s Daniel Pearl World Music Day event features a lineup of Taipei-based musicians, including Blues Vibrations, Nathan Javens, El Hefe, Scott Prairie and Mia Hsieh (???) from A Moving Sound, and my group, the Muddy Basin Ramblers.

After tomorrow’s show, FODfest travels south for appearances at the Taichung Jazz Festival, and then Tainan and Taitung.

FODfest shows coincide with the Daniel Pearl World Music Days, which are held every October, but Mack is looking to expand to year-round touring.

Taiwan is FODfest’s first-ever international destination, and he hopes that it will mark the beginning of trips to other places such as the Middle East, where he sees an opportunity to “bridge gaps” in places with acute conflicts and divisions.

“My mission with this is always dig deeper and to produce something of real impact,” said Mack. “[FODFest] really started out as a party for a friend who is no longer with us.”

“But as it’s grown, it’s taken on a life of its own.”


DANIEL PEARL WORLD MUSIC DAY BAND LINEUP:
»FODfest (The Friends of Daniel Pearl Festival)

»Nathan Javens

»El Hefe

»Blues Vibrations

»Scott Prairie and Mia Hsieh (???) from A Moving Sound

»David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers


Event starts at 7pm and takes place on the outdoor stage at Huashan 1914 Creative Park. If it rains, the event will move to Alleycat’s Huashan, located in
the grounds.

All are welcome to bring their instruments for an open jam later in the evening


ADDITIONAL FODFEST DATES IN TAIWAN:
Tomorrow from 5pm to 6:30pm, Taichung Jazz Festival, Civil Plaza (????)

Tomorrow at 10:30pm at 89K, 21 Daguan Rd, Nantun Dist, Taichung City (?????????21?)

Sunday at 7pm at Tin Pan Alley, 28, Beimen Rd Sec 2, Tainan City (??????????28?)

Oct. 20 at 7pm at Kasa Cafe, 102 Heping St, Taitung City (??????102?)

Oct. 21 in Taipei. Venue to be announced

- Taipei Times

By Bo Emerson

The late journalist Daniel Pearl, murdered by al-Qaeda terrorists seven years ago, would have been 46 on Saturday. On his birthday he probably would have been doing what he loved most – making music.

There will be plenty of music made in his honor, however, courtesy of a network of friends and admirers that now extends around the globe.

During the month of October at least 850 performances, from Atlanta to Pakistan, will be dedicated to Pearl, who lived his life on the road and made a home out of music wherever he landed. Daniel Pearl World Music Days is coordinated by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, and it has endorsements from such musicians as REM, Elton John and Herbie Hancock.

One of those performances, by a Massachusetts-based group called Friends of Daniel Pearl, will take place Saturday at the Candler Park Fall Fest in Atlanta.

Pearl made connections with local musicians when he worked in the Wall Street Journal’s Atlanta bureau from 1990-1993, playing bluesy violin with such groups as the Cosmic Gypsies, the Ottoman Empire and Wild West Picture Show.

"He answered an ad I had in Creative Loafing looking for a fiddle player," said Todd Mack, a guitarist and founder of Cosmic Gypsies. "He was the kind of guy, wherever he was, he would go sign up at jam sessions, and poke around in the local music scene. He took that model with him when he started travelling around, like in Southeast Asia."

After Pearl was murdered, Mack (who had relocated to the Berkshires in Massachusetts) began hosting a Friends of Daniel Pearl Festival -- FODfest for short -- in his back yard, and then, on a limited tour, to places where Pearl had lived. This year the tour travels through Atlanta and Chicago and also makes a week-long digression to Taiwan.

All FODfest concerts are free to the public and are performed by musicians donating their time.

"I have a musician flying to Taiwan to do the Taiwan tour on her own dime, to be part of the experience," said Mack. "Danny viewed music as a sort of way of bring people together, a universal language, a means to get people to the table. That's what [FODfest] is promoting: strengthening people through music, bringing them together regardless of the differences between them."

Clay Harper, co-founder of the Fellini’s Pizza chain and the prime mover behind a handful of Atlanta bands, including the Coolies and the Ottoman Empire, recruited Pearl to play with one incarnation of the Ottomans. The groups featured accordion, acoustic guitars and an Americana sound.

"We played the coffee house circuit and played some big shows and did a bunch of gigs at the Variety [Playhouse," said Harper. "We opened for Taj Mahal, but the biggest and by far the most exciting was opening for the Kinks at the Rialto."

Harper said he admired Pearl's wide-eyed approach to the rock and roll world: "He was refreshingly wholesome in a decidedly unwholesome environment."

Friends of Daniel Pearl, 3:30 p.m., Sat., Oct. 10, free, Candler Park Fall Fest, inside Candler Park at the corner of McLendon Avenue and Candler Park Drive; festival runs 11-8 Saturday and noon-8 Sunday; www.candlerparkfallfest.org/ - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Friends of Daniel Pearl Festival (FODfest) is a living celebration of community & friendship through music. FODfest was founded by Todd Mack, a close friend of Pearl's, as a way to honor his friend with a legacy that reflects the ideals by which he lived rather than the tragic way in which he died. In addition to being a journalist, Daniel Pearl was a talented musician who believed in the power of music to bring people together regardless of the differences between them. A classically trained violinist and avid fiddle & mandolin player, music was Danny's way of connecting with people and learning about the local culture as he traveled the world. FODfest is a unique performance format that is part jam session, part song swap, part concert. Some of the musicians performing were friends of Danny's, while others didn't know him at all. Most are meeting for the first time on stage. They all share Danny's belief in music as a universal language. The 5th Annual FODfest tour kicks off at the Narrows Center for the Arts on October 1, 2009 before traveling 32 days across the country. FODfest takes place every October as a featured event of Daniel Pearl World Music Days, which is organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

Musicians playing are
Aidan O'Brien, Bernice Lewis, Graham & Barbara Dean, Jann Klose, Lindsay Mac, Radio Free Earth, Sean Schenker, Todd Mack. - Providence Journal