Music and Marseilles.

After Morello received an award from Music Will, the non-profit organization that establishes music programs in schools challenged him to implement 20 new units across the country with its partnership.

Tom with Marseilles Student Body

Thursday, Morello, a Libertyville High School graduate, will return to Marseilles – where he spent summers and holidays growing up – to introduce the elementary school there to a program he believes can make an impact.

“This program, on the one hand, it provides a great way for kids of any age to immediately begin engaging with music and programs are tailored to schools,” Morello said in an interview Monday with Shaw Local News Network. “If kids are into country music or interested in making beats or writing rhymes or interested in heavy metal drumming, whatever it is, there’s an easy path to starting that. For me I took French horn lessons when I was 9 or 10 years old and it made me tell my mom I never want to play music again. … It felt like a job. Music Will is the exact opposite of that. It starts with loving to play music from Day 1.”

Music Will Instrument Donation

Music Will provides instruments and the instructions to educators for developing the program for young people to express themselves via music. That open approach is what Morello likes about the program in particular.

“Music has been so important in my life and I saw how close I was to not being a musician,” said Morello, who was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame with Rage Against the Machine. “You know, I took two guitar lessons when I was like 13 years old. I wanted to learn Led Zeppelin and Kiss songs and they wanted to teach me how to tune the guitar and play the C major scale and I stopped playing guitar for four years. I almost was not a guitar player, because of the way I was instructed. Music Will is the exact opposite of that. It’s called playing music, so we play from Day 1.”

 

Marseilles Elementary will be the third school Morello has selected for a Music Will program. He also chose Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, which had no music program, and a school in Harlem, New York, near where he was born.

“My family is still connected to Marseilles and it’s an opportunity to give back to a community and stay connected.”

Though he was born in Harlem, New York, and raised in Libertyville, Morello’s family has roots in Marseilles.

“It’s where the Morellos are from,” he said. “It was five Italian brothers who moved there to work in the 1800s to work in the coal mines. I’ve spent every summer there as a kid, won the 1973 Little League Championship there, had a lot of favorite memories of holidays all throughout my youth and into my adulthood, so yeah Marseilles is a very special place to me. It’s gratifying to be able to come back there and help start the music program at the school.”

Morello said he’s observed the economic fluctuation the city has undergone since when he was younger.

“It was more Norman Rockwell like and now there’s a few more abandoned homes,” Morello said. “A few years ago I went there and met some kids who were out hanging out by the courts and they described their lives as their choices seem to be between the Army, Walmart, maybe selling drugs. It made me think anything I can do to help give back to the community so important to me and my family, I’m happy to do.”

Along with introducing students to a different path or a new interest, Morello said music programs can be positive in many ways.

Marseilles Elementary Students

“In the schools where these music programs exist, the graduation rates are higher, student engagement and academic engagement is higher, college acceptances are higher,” Morello said. “It’s just young people finding a way to connect with others, express themselves and to gain self confidence. All of the things music provides beyond the ‘it’s awesome to learn a Luke Bryan song or something.’”

Morello’s visit will be 19 months since he performed in Marseilles to commemorate a 1932 labor riot that led to the death of Joliet’s Steve Sutton, a Croatian immigrant and father of four children.

In that April 2022 appearance, Morello performed songs from his solo project as The Nightwatchman, joining members of Laborers 393 and about 500 people in attendance. The event included a number of speakers, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

His song “Night Falls” is written about “Big Steve” Sutton, specifically, and how Sutton was killed on July 19, 1932, while protesting with other laborers in seek of work and a better wage. Morello said Sutton was a labor martyr.

Tom Performing with Marseilles Student Body

Beyond that performance, Morello said he’s made several visits to Marseilles, bringing his children there to show them some old stomping grounds, putting flowers on relatives’ graves and hanging out with friends and family for chicken dinners at the Illini Lounge.

“I drive (my kids) by the old Little League field and whatnot. And the coal mines now which are all overgrown,” he said. “My family is still connected to Marseilles and it’s an opportunity to give back to a community and stay connected.”

Morello said he’s also placed flowers at the Radium Girls statue in Ottawa, noting his grandmother remembers helping the women while she worked at the Ottawa hospital. Even during a Zoom interview Monday with Shaw Local News Network, he wore a Chicago Cubs hat.

“My Aunt Isabel who worked at (The Daily Times in Ottawa), she’s the one who got me into the Cubs,” Morello said. “She didn’t live to see it unfortunately. The day after – I was actually at Game 7 in Cleveland – before I went home, I stopped by the Marseilles cemetery, and I went and planted the W flag on her grave and a bottle of champagne.”

On Thursday, Morello said he will say a few words to students, take questions, then show them the instruments that are being donated.

“I’ll play some music and there will be a chance to do something together with the kids,” Morello said. “We’re coming in hot, we’ll start right off the bat with doing something really fun.

“This one will probably be a couple of acoustic songs, depending on whatever resources are available.”

So does that mean no electrified songs, or even a little bit of guitar feedback – something to rattle the gym windows? He wouldn’t rule it out.

“I’m not afraid of that,” he said. “Perhaps not on this trip.”

Original story from Derek Barichello of Shaw Local News Network.

The post Tom Morello to Bring Music Program to Marseilles Elementary appeared first on MusicWill.

In honor of Giving Tuesday, country star Blake Shelton has partnered with the largest non-profit music program, Music Will to give away a signed Gibson guitar. The guitar is a beautiful Les Paul Custom w/ Ebony Fingerboard Gloss and all of the proceeds will go towards music education.The event will end on Tuesday, November 28th. Enter Here. 

Since its inception, Music Will has served over 1.6 million students, donated over 100,000 instruments and equipment, and supported over 6,000 schools nationwide. Today, a nationwide network of K-12 districts have adopted the Music Will program into their schools and more than 70 colleges and universities teach their approach to their music education majors.

The post Blake Shelton Gives Away a Gibson appeared first on MusicWill.

Parton, who was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is celebrating that achievement with the release of “Dolly Parton’s Rockstar Global First Listen Event” across movie theaters worldwide, including here in Colorado.

The unique cinematic experience, which will include an evening of music videos, behind-the-scenes peeks, special performances – including a never-before-seen performance of “Circle of Love,” as well as an exclusive interview with the artist herself – will take place on Nov. 15.

Fans of Dolly Parton in Colorado will have the opportunity to see the superstar across 17 theaters, including:

• Alamo Drafthouse Sloans Lake
• AMC Highlands Ranch 24
• AMC Castle Rock 12
• AMC Southlands 16
• AMC Westminster Promenade 24
• Metropolitan Isis Theatre
• Century 16 Bel Mar
• Century 16 Boulder
• Cinemark 16 Fort Collins
• Cinemark 12 Greeley
• Harkins Arvada 14
• MetroLux 12
• Landmark Esquire
• SouthGlenn Stadium 14
• Colorado Mills 16
• Denver Pavilions Stadium 15
• The Village at the Peaks 12

“I am excited to know that my fans around the world will be able to come together and be the first to hear a sneak peek of my Rockstar album,” Dolly Parton said. “I am so proud of this music, and I am humbled by all the wonderful artists who joined me. I cannot wait for people to hear it!”

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Music Will, the largest nonprofit music program in the US public school system.

Parton’s “Rockstar” album will have an all-star roster of musicians for the 30-song collection, which includes nine original tracks and 21 iconic rock anthems.

The album will be released globally on Nov. 17 and will be available as a four-LP set, a two-CD set, digital download, and on all streaming services.

Tickets for “Dolly Parton’s Rockstar Global First Listen Event” can be purchased here.

The post Dolly Parton is bringing her ‘Rockstar’ album to movie theaters in Colorado appeared first on MusicWill.

Fans can get a special first listen of Parton’s upcoming “Rockstar” at three Knoxville movie theaters.

Theaters everywhere will present “Rockstar: The Global First Listen Event,” on Nov 15. The cinematic screening features music videos for songs on the album, behind-the-scenes moments, rare performances of “9 to 5” and the holiday song “Circle of Love” and an exclusive interview with Parton.

“I am excited to know that my fans around the world will be able to come together and be the first to hear a sneak peek of my Rockstar album,” Parton said in a news release. “I am so proud of this music, and I am humbled by all the wonderful artists who joined me. I cannot wait for people to hear it!”

Knoxville theaters presenting ‘Rockstar’ first listen event

• Regal Downtown West
• Regal Pinnacle Stadium
• Cinemark Tinseltown Oak Ridge

Tickets can be purchased at dollyrockstarevent.com. Tickets are $14.22 at the Regal locations with a 7:15 p.m. showtime, according to the ticket purchasing sites. Tickets are $13.72 at the Tinseltown location with a 7 p.m. showtime.

Encore presentations of the film will be presented in select theaters Nov. 16. Check dollyrockstarevent.com for more details. A portion of ticket sales will benefit Music Will, a nonprofit music program for U.S. public school systems.

“Rockstar,” Parton’s first rock album, comes out Nov. 17 and features classic rock anthems like “Stairway to Heaven,” “Heartbreaker,” (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Let It Be” and “Purple Rain.”

In an interview with Knox News in September, Parton talked about switching to full-blown rock star mode for the album. “I learned a lot about myself, and I worked hard at it. I would hear all the stuff and I’d wonder if I could hit that note,” Parton told Knox News.

“I thought, well, I’m just going to go for it. If it turns out great, great. And if it don’t, I’ll say ‘Erase that right now!’” Parton said with a laugh. “But I squalled at it. I mean, I hit it. I got in there.”

Paul McCartney, Steven Tyler, Miley Cyrus, Lizzo, Sheryl Crow, Elton John and Stevie Nicks are a few of the many musicians who make appearances on the 30-track album.

Original Story from Knox News

The post Dolly Parton’s ‘Rockstar’ movie is coming to these three Knoxville theaters appeared first on MusicWill.

Listen | Transcript

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I’m Alison Stewart, activist, and Rage Against the Machine co-founder and guitarist Tom Morello is on tour, and this week he’ll be stopping in Manhattan, but this is no ordinary tour. The venues on this tour are public schools where the music education nonprofit Music Will is working with Morello to launch music programs and donate instruments and equipment to schools in need, including in California and in his home state of Illinois, and here in New York City where he was born in Harlem.

On Thursday, he’ll be back uptown at P.S. 200, the James McCune Smith School on 7th Avenue and 150th Street. To talk a little bit about the event and his work with the organization, I am joined by Tom Morello. Hey, Tom.

Tom Morello: Hi. How are you?

Alison Stewart: I’m doing great. How are you doing?

Tom Morello: I’m well, thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Alison Stewart: I’m so excited to talk to you about Music Will, which actually happens to be based in our listening area out of Montclair, New Jersey. There are a lot of organizations that are trying to restore music programs in schools or start them in schools. What was it about the kind of work that Music Will does that connected with you?

Tom Morello: Music Will reached out to me and was kind enough to offer me something called a humanitarian award. That stuff comes across my desk from time to time. They said what comes along with that award is the ability that were going to help me open 20 music schools in public schools across the country that needed them. I was just like, what an incredible opportunity that is. I thought, where would I like those schools to be? For the first year of my life, I lived at West 142nd in Riverside with my mom and I thought we should definitely do one in Harlem.

The day before, Rage Against the Machine is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ll be up in Harlem opening a music program at James McCune Smith School.

Alison Stewart: Your mom was a lifelong activist and educator. Anybody who follows you on Instagram knows she was like on the picket lines with hotel workers a month ago, dressed around her hundredth birthday. Happy birthday, the way. In terms of how your mom thought about activism, she was a civil rights activist, she organized parents for rock and rap against music censorship, how did she shape how you thought about activism?

Tom Morello: Well, I grew up in a very archly conservative, homogenous community in the northern suburbs of Chicago, but was always steeled in my worldview by my mom’s radical– She had taught around the world. She had taught in Kenya, in Spain, in Japan, and in Germany. Really had this internationalist point of view that she imbued me with. I thought everyone had a radical civil rights mom, fiery civil rights mom, until you get out in the world and you’re like, “Oh, I may be one of the few.” She did just turn 100 a couple of weeks ago. October 1st was her 100th birthday.

It was great to celebrate that with her. One of the ways that I’ve continued to celebrate her century on this planet is by doing this program with Music Will. She was a public high school teacher for 30 years. Bringing education and the overlap of education, music, and activism into Harlem on Thursday is going to be something that’s going to be very gratifying.

Alison Stewart: Did you have someone who taught you music and who made a difference in how you grew up and how you thought about yourself?

Tom Morello: Well, one of the great things about Music Will is it’s a non-traditional music program. I took two guitar lessons at 13 and made me put the guitar down for four years. It was so off-putting and felt that knuckle rapping, very hierarchical way. What they do is they teach kids what they want to know.

If you want to write rap lyrics or make beats or if you want to sing country and western songs or play heavy metal drums, that’s what you will learn on the first day that you enter the Music Will program. I actually taught guitar lessons during my struggling years in Hollywood. I remember those two horrible lessons that I had had at 13 years old and tried to never replicate that formula and make music. It’s called playing music.

Playing music can be such a great outlet, not just outlet for creativity, but for self-expression and finding out who you are and building community with other people and an avenue to express yourself in a number of different ways, including social change.

Alison Stewart: I went to grad school to become a teacher for a minute, and one of the things I took away from it, which I also applied to my work as a journalist, is it’s important for something to have meaning in someone’s life. That’s how you make the connection. That’s how you hold onto it, whether it’s about a history lesson or it’s about something in math. There’s something about music and having it have meaning in the kids’ life. That sounds like the way Music Will approaches it from your description.

Tom Morello: Absolutely. It’s such an incredible program. One of the things I will say, it just dismantles the wall. I remember thinking as a kid growing up, and I love the big rock bands, and I thought, in order to be a musician, I have to own a castle on a Scottish lock and have a $10,000 Les Paul and this, that, and the other. For me, it was punk rock dismantled that. What Music Will does is that it dismantles that on the first day. It’s like you will immediately become a songwriter.

You will immediately become someone who can learn your favorite Travis Scott song or Metallica song. Right away, you figure out these are not some mystical creatures who create this. They’re people exactly like you. When I was a guitar teacher in Hollywood, people would come, they get their first guitar for Christmas or whatever, and they’d show up and, “Oh, do I have to learn to tune it? Do I have to learn the C major scale?” I said, “No. The first thing we’re going to do is you’re going to write a song. See that dot there? How many times would you like to play it? The next dot. How many? Okay, let’s just repeat that pattern. You’re a songwriter. You and Paul McCartney are both songwriters.” You know what I mean? May be a greater sophistication to other songwriters, but there’s nothing intrinsically different or special about anyone else who’s written songs than you, young child at James McCune Smith School right now.

Alison Stewart: Tell us a little bit about the program on Thursday. It starts at 10:00 on a school night.

Tom Morello: Yes. No, in the morning? It’s in the morning.

Alison Stewart: Oh, in the morning, okay.

Tom Morello: It’s in the morning. We’re not going to keep the kindergartners.

Alison Stewart: I saw 10:00, I was like, “That late, man. They’re going to be rocking out late.”

Tom Morello: One thing you have to learn to do is stay up super late if you’re going to be playing music. We want to get that on the first day.

Alison Stewart: What’s on the program?

Tom Morello: What’s on the program is basically it’s a little bit about Music Will. I’ll be performing, I’ll be playing a song or two. There’ll be a reveal of the instruments that we’re donating to school and a little talk about the music program. Just like it’s a fun day. Did the first one in LA a few days ago, and it’s a great time with the kids. Well, they’ll be rocking out and jumping around on stage, and letting them know that starting tomorrow, this music program is for you to immerse yourselves.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Tom Morello. We are talking about Music Will and the opening of a music program at P.S. 200, the James McCune Smith School up in Harlem. Since you’ve done this a couple of times, kids always come up with really good questions and the unexpected ones, what did someone ask you that you were like, “Wow, all right then.”

Tom Morello: Well, when there’s an open mic out there, you get what you get and you can’t be upset. I was doing one in Van Nuys High School, and kids are asking about what age did you start playing guitar and what are your favorite songs? Someone comes up and these are high school kids, and he goes, like, “In a tweet in 2014, you suggested that China’s relationship with Tibet is A, B, and C. My view is this. Have you changed your opinion?” I’m like, “We’re going to have to have sidebar on that [laughs] because one, I don’t remember the tweet, and two, I’d like to talk about rock and roll right now.”

Alison Stewart: What kind of instruments are we talking about that are going to the schools?

Tom Morello: Well, again, it’s culturally specific. There will be the opportunity for these kids to play guitar, bass drums, to make beats. One thing that Music Will does is they come into the schools, they help the teachers in that school, they go through this training program, in this sensitivity program like, “Here’s how to best build an immediate bridge.” It’s very, very sensitive to the needs of the kids in the school. I haven’t spoken with the grade school kids there, but someone has to figure out what it is that they’d like to know and what they’d like to learn.

A lot of kids, they want to make beats and write rhymes, so they will have ample opportunity to do just that.

Alison Stewart: What do the educators tell you about what it’s like to be in these elementary schools at this time?

Tom Morello: What the educators say about being in these elementary schools is that it’s often life-changing for the kids. In a time where public schools are so grossly underfunded and programs like the one we did in Van Nuys High School, they’d never had a music program before at the high school, ever.

Alison Stewart: Really? Wow.

Tom Morello: It just opens these doors for– It’s not just self-expression, but it’s a way to find out who you are and have avenues and connectivity that doesn’t exist without music. Music predates in a written language. The truth that can resonate from a beat and a rhyme or a guitar chord is something that we feel deep in our reptilian brain. There’s some hard wiring that this is a way that humans connect and this is a way that humans tell their story.

When it’s denied to kids, especially in a grade school environment, it cuts off a limb of the tree. What educators said is like, when that limb of the tree starts blossoming, you really see the kids in other areas of their lives, from academics to social interaction is great benefit across the board.

Alison Stewart: It’s also how we communicate. There was a study done from your alma mater, Harvard, in 2019 discussing how in every culture and in every language, there’s a lullaby. There’s a song that’s sung at funerals, there’s music that’s played at weddings, and that it truly, without being cheesy, it is a universal language, music. It is a way that we can communicate with each other. It’s a way you can tell somebody you’re mad.

Tom Morello: Exactly. It’s not cheesy at all. In art, there’s never been a successful social movement in our country that hasn’t had a great soundtrack. You know what I mean? It’s like it’s one of the ways to steal the backbones of those on the front line about wind and sails of social justice movements. Let’s start them young at James McCune Smith.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Tom Morello. We are talking about Music Will, the organization helping to get instruments and music programs in school. Tom is doing his best. He’s got– Is it 20, you said? 20 schools?

Tom Morello: 20 schools, yes.

Alison Stewart: All right. Your mom turned 100 beginning of the month and she celebrated in style. You posted on Instagram, “Mary Morello’s 100th birthday celebration featured a stirring rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s and Randy Rhoads’ Mr. Crowley, performed by at Jack Black and a kick-ass band of 12 and 13-year-olds. Mary was pleased. My son Roman on guitar.” Roman knows how to play the guitar.

Tom Morello: Roman is living proof of– He’s Music Will incarnate. First of all, when your dad is a musician, no one wants to be a musician. Get that straight right off the bat. During pandemic times, there were a lot of hours in the day and I pride him off of some video game for about five minutes of teaching him the first three notes of Stairway to Heaven and he felt– Again, much like Music Will does, it was building small successes. It wasn’t like, “Oh, you must practice for four hours to do this.” It’s like, “Here’s three notes. Tomorrow, I’ll do the next three.”

All of a sudden, he was like, “Wow, I can play the first six notes of Stairway to Heaven and it sounds like the record.” Then he asked me the next day, “Can we learn the next three notes?” He began on that path. Now, I’ve been relegated, I’ve been demoted to becoming the rhythm guitar player of the family. I just have to sit there and strum while he shreds away as is evidenced by his incredible rendition of Mr. Crowley.

Alison Stewart: Let’s listen to it a little bit. First, we’ll hear Jack Black, and then we’ll hear Roman Morello shredding.

(MUSIC – Roman Morello: Mr. Crowley)

Alison Stewart: The visuals are fine in that too because people are like, “Oh, that’s sweet. Tom’s son.” Then he starts playing, like, “Man, you see that? Do you hear that kid?”

[laughter]

Tom Morello: Yes.

Alison Stewart: I was curious how you’re feeling about the tour because you were born in Harlem. You’re going to open a school there. Your next stop is in Illinois, a couple of hours from where you grew up. What is it like for you to return to these places where you have a personal connection?

Tom Morello: It’s very meaningful. I really just have to thank Music Will for having that vision to create an award like this. It’s not something that gathers dust on a mantle. It’s something that lives and breathes now for generations and will continue to create links in the chain of people making music and potentially changing their worlds with it.

The next stop is Marseilles, Illinois. It’s spelled exactly like Marseille, France, but it’s in central Illinois. It’s pronounced Marseilles. That’s where the Morellos are from. They were Italian coal miners. It’s a town that’s seen some pretty hard times. You work at Walmart, you join the army, you work at a strip club or you sell meth. That’s where it’s at right now. They don’t even have a high school there anymore. We’re doing it in the middle school there. It’s a place where my family’s from.

It used to be this democratic union town and now, there’s Confederate flags in the yards. It’s a place where I thought it would just be great to give back to that community as a son who left it years– I spent every summer there as a kid, and to try to really give back. It’s these places that I have a connection to and then my hometown in Libertyville which probably is a little bit more affluent.

It may not need it as much, but the idea that this is where I’m from and this is a place where it’s going to have a different kind of music education than anything that’s ever been offered there before is very meaningful to me. I just thank Music Will a lot for that.

Alison Stewart: Well, have a great time Thursday at P.S. 200.

Tom Morello: Thank you very much.

Alison Stewart: Tom Morello, thanks for joining us.

Tom Morello: Pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It.

Original Story from “All of It with Alison Stewart” at WNYC

The post Tom Morello Visits a Harlem School appeared first on MusicWill.

Morello met with 200 students, participated in a Q&A, visited a music classroom, performed Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and made a donation for musical instruments. Through funding, staff training and instrument donation, Music Will gives kids the opportunity to learn by playing the modern hits they enjoy or writing their own songs, rather than starting with the usual scales and theory.

Next up, Morello will appear at an elementary school in Harlem, the day before Rage Against The Machine is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on 11/3.

Pictured raging against the machine is Morello (with the guitar) along with the Van Nuys students lucky enough to rage with him.

Original Story from HITS

The post Morello Rages at Van Nuys High appeared first on MusicWill.

Tom Morello is no stranger to awards. Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave have netted him two Grammys — one for each band — while the former is on the cusp of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month. But this week, he celebrated another, which he considers one of the “best” so far: The Humanitarian Award from Music Will, the largest non-profit music education program for schools across the country.

The recognition at the nonprofit’s 15th Annual Benefit last May came with the opportunity to hand-pick 20 schools to implement innovative music programs.

“That’s the best award you could ever give someone like me,” he tells Los Angeles Magazine. “It’s not just like a trophy that you put on a shelf. It’s a living, breathing link in the chain, uplifting one another; and music being a vehicle for the betterment of the world.”

The first on Morello’s list was Van Nuys High School, where the longtime L.A. resident appeared on Tuesday to perform for and speak to about 200 kids while revealing a set of new instruments the organization donated to the school. According to Morello, the school “has never had a music program there before.”

Through funding, staff training, and instrument donation, Music Will gives kids the opportunity to learn by playing the modern hits they enjoy or writing their own songs, rather than starting with the usual scales and theory — an approach to music education that totally turned off Morello when he first picked up a guitar as a 13-year-old kid. So much so, in fact, that he didn’t touch that guitar for four years after taking two formal lessons.

“I wanted to learn ‘Black Dog‘ by Led Zeppelin or ‘Detroit Rock City‘ by KISS, and the second lesson, they made me learn the C major scale. I’m like, I’m out,” he recalls with a laugh.

Years later, while teaching guitar lessons in Hollywood before achieving rock star status, he took a more informal approach. “In the first lesson, when a neophyte would come in with a brand new bass or guitar or whatever, before they left in that first hour, they had written a song,” he explains. “They would leave and I’d say like, ‘You are a songwriter.'”

It’s a similar approach former California public school teacher and Music Will founder Dave Will took decades ago to start giving students guitar lessons after school. “There was no music program at my school. Bummed me out,” he tells Los Angeles on the same call with Morello. “I started giving free guitar lessons to all my kids after school [and] I started teaching kids from day one just to play the music they loved and they started writing their own songs.”

Those lessons led to Will’s development of the “Music as a Second Language” curriculum — now used in dozens of colleges and universities across the United States — with a methodology that focuses heavily on teaching students to play the music that they already know and love, bringing greater equity and inclusivity into music classrooms.

“It’s just an honor to be able to invoke the power of your organization,” Morello tells Will on the call. “To continue to help young people express themselves, find themselves, heal themselves, and change themselves and the world via music.”

It was actually a young person who helped Morello learn to first express himself as a singer-songwriter, leading to his political folk alter ego The Nightwatchman in the early years of the new millennium. The musician was hosting a Thanksgiving event at the Covenant House on Hollywood Blvd. when he was mesmerized by a troubled teenager singing his heart out.

“He was maybe 16-17 years old, and his story was a real bad one,” Morello remembers. “And he got up there with a guitar that was super out of tune and sang with a voice that shook. But the intent… felt like everyone’s soul in the room was at stake. And I was like, holy shit. I’m over here whittling some guitar solos [but] I’ve got ideas; I’ve got stuff in me that that I’ve got to see if I can share it like that. So, that kid taught me, and I started writing songs and I made a bunch of [solo] records since then.”

It’s that kind of life-changing inspiration that Morello and Will hope to spread to more kids across the country through the Music Will programs.

Next up, Morello will appear at an elementary school in Harlem — the New York City neighborhood where he was born — the day before Rage Against the Machine is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Brooklyn on Nov. 3.

“To be able to kind of go back to that neighborhood and leave the blossoming seed of a music school there is incredible,” says the grateful rock star.

After that, they’ll bring the beneficial program to a middle school in Marseilles, Illinois, where Morello grew up. “They play the songs they want to play and they learn the kind of music they want to learn,” Morello says of the program. “And if they want to be DJs or rappers or heavy metal drummers, it’s all available to them.”

Will adds, “All humans are musical by their very nature, and it’s our job to draw that music out of young people and not drum it into them.”

One thing Morello does want to drum into young minds, however, is a new definition of “success.”

“The question I am often asked by young and aspiring musicians is, ‘How can I be a success?’ And to me, there’s only one answer to that,” Morello tells Los Angeles. “And that is to play music that you love and sincerely care about. The end.”

Original Story from Los Angeles Magazine

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Tom Morello, famed guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, has found a new target for his indignation: underfunded music education in public schools.

Morello has teamed up with the nonprofit Music Will to launch music programs in 20 schools across the country, which means he will be shredding in a lot of auditoriums.

This week, he brought his axe to Van Nuys High School to celebrate the opening of its music program and the opportunities it creates for underprivileged students.

“It acknowledges the fact that everyone has a musical artist within them,” explains Morello. “Because there’s often a lot of barriers … lessons might be hard, they might be expensive, your school might not have a music program. And so they really make it completely accessible for every person to play any sort of music.”

Known for his on and off-stage antics, Morello didn’t miss an opportunity to add some pizazz to the event in Van Nuys.

“I played some shredding guitar for them, and then got hundreds of high school kids up on stage with me for a version of Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land.’ We unveiled the equipment, the gear, and then they brought it back to the music room and began jamming,” he describes.

Morello believes in access to music for everyone, which makes him deeply concerned that arts programs are often the first to get axed.

“Artistic expression is a fundamental human need. … I know for me, music was both an inspiration and a life raft,” he says.

Music Will helps fill the gap left by budget cuts, and Morello explains that their approach to music education meets students where they are.

“They provide the kind of music programs that the kids want,” he says. “If they want to make hip-hop beats, or if they want to sing country and western songs, or if they want to be a heavy metal drummer, all of that’s available to them.”

Morello’s desire to bring music to more kids is rooted in his own experience growing up. A self-proclaimed outsider, music provided a space where he could connect with people on a deeper level in his small, conservative Illinois town.

“When you actually are able to find expression through an instrument or playing in a band, and that sort of camaraderie and the chemistry, there’s really nothing like it,” Morello describes. “I think that young people really need to be able to tap into their own creativity, their own expression, to help them determine who they are, who they want to be.”

As exemplified by his own music and activism, Morello believes that music is also a tool for social change. He wants the students at Van Nuys High to feel politically as well as artistically empowered.

“What I hope they take away is a growing realization that they are agents of history, they’re agents of their own destiny, and that … whenever the world has changed, it’s changed by people who are no different than any of those kids in the classroom.”

Original Story from KCRW

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The 59-year-old was performing for teenage students at Van Nuys High School — one of 20 public schools around the country he has selected to receive free musical instruments and training as part of the nonprofit Music Will program.

“When I was 13, there was no music program in my school that I was interested in,” Morello told Spectrum News. “I played French horn as a 9- and 10-year-old and declared to my mom, ‘Music is not for me.’”

Fast forward 46 years, and Morello has recorded 22 albums and played to thunderous crowds at the world’s largest arenas as part of Rage Against the Machine. He’s won multiple Grammys and been named one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

None of it was because of what he learned in school. Even when he bought his own guitar and started taking lessons at 13, he was uninspired by teachers insisting he play scales in C Major and not the KISS and Led Zeppelin riffs he aspired to.

“There’s a kinship that I feel with Music Will and their ability to just build a bridge between wherever you are,” Morello said of the nonprofit, which teaches kids how to play popular music. “You could be a classical pianist or you could be someone who has an idea for a hip-hop verse, and you can start today playing music and playing with other people in a way that could change your life.”

On Tuesday, Morello spent about two hours at Van Nuys High School just north of Los Angeles sharing his story and shredding guitar for a crowd of roughly 200 students, who were especially appreciative of the message he had taped to the back side of his guitar: niente fascismo – “no fascism” in Italian. The self-identified socialist struck an egalitarian tone with his audience, answering students’ questions about the songs he likes playing most, how much time he spent practicing and whether his parents supported his musical ambitions.

“Van Nuys High School school of rock!” a girl yelled from the crowd after Morello helped unveil the instruments the school is receiving through Music Will, including a keyboard, amplifiers, drum kit and guitars.

“One of the things that we hear when we come out and visit schools and talk to kids is how much music is not only their tool for self-expression, but when they become part of a band, whether it’s a classroom band or a band with friends, kids are saying, ‘I finally found my tribe,’” Music Will Interim CEO Janice Pollizzotto told the students.

That was Morello’s experience too. Growing up in the Illinois suburb of Marseilles, Morello told Spectrum News, “For me, music as a teenager was everything. It was an inspiration. It was a life raft. It was a home” that gave him a window into the world beyond where he lived, “beyond the opportunities that were limited to joining the Army or working at Dairy Queen.”

He charts his musical trajectory as beginning with “escapist heavy metal,” before morphing into punk rock. It was listening to the Clash and Sex Pistols that inspired Morello to pick up his guitar four years after he abandoned formal music lessons.

Within 24 hours of hearing Johnny Rotten on cassette at age 17, “I walked into the drama club of my school and said, ‘A punk rock band is forming. I’m the guitarist, because I own a guitar. If you want in, raise your hand. No experience required.’”

“Punk rock music and the DIY attitude made me eschew teachers of any sort,” he added. “That same attitude of having no barrier to entry is what Music Will is about, whether you want to be a heavy metal drummer or you want to make beats or be a rapper or a country song writer. They facilitate doing it.”

Morello’s teenage enthusiasm for punk was eventually bolstered with the political rap of Public Enemy that informed the rap, metal and hip-hop fusion that made Rage Against the Machine one of the most successful hard rock acts of all time. Rage will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next month for “shaking up the foundation of the status quo — lyrically, sonically and philosophically,” according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

Public Enemy founder Chuck D later became Morello’s bandmate in the now defunct rap-rock supergroup Prophets of Rage, which was formed to protest the 2016 election. More recently, Chuck D was the presenter when Morello received Music Will’s Humanitarian Award in May, first introducing him to the organization.

“It was very kind of them,” Morello said of the honor, “but when they said the award came with the ability to open 20 music schools around the country in places that needed it, I jumped at the opportunity.”

Van Nuys High School was first on his list. Morello, who has lived in LA for over 30 years, said he selected the school to give back locally. He will open the next Music Will program next month at an elementary school in Harlem, near where he was born, followed by a middle school in Marseilles, Illinois, where he grew up.

“We’re going to open up music schools to bring music to places where it’s needed,” Morello said. “Having someone reach out and make it easy for you to unlock the expression inside you that only music can do is such a great gift back. It changes the world in a lot of different ways because it changes people in a lot of different ways.”

Morello said he’s often asked if music can change the world. At Van Nuys High School, he offered his life story as affirmation.

“History is not just something you can read about,” Morello told the students. “History is something that you can make. Whenever the world is changed for the better, it has been changed by people who didn’t have any more money, intelligence, creativity or power than anyone in this room.”

Watch Spectrum 1 News Video Segment

Full Story from Spectrum 1 News

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Determined to modernize music education and make it more accessible to a wider range of students, 400 music educators from across the country gathered at Colorado State University last week for the Modern Band Summit.

They heard Bootsy Collins, one of the all-time great funk and R&B bass players; Jason Rawls, a top hip-hop producer; hip-hop artist Queen Herawin; community activist Martha Diaz; and two-time Emmy Award-winning musician Toki Wright speak about the culture and community surrounding different forms of music.

And they shared ideas, strategies and curriculum to bring modern music into their classrooms to get students who might not otherwise connect with school excited about learning.

“There’s great value in being able to communicate with your students in a language they understand — whether that’s playing a similar song that they hear on the radio in the room or just acknowledging how they receive information and utilizing that same medium to communicate other things,” said Wright, a hip-hop artist, producer and educator.

“So, if it’s through song, if it’s through creative writing, if it’s through playing, if it’s through dance. We miss so much connection with our young people, because we teach them in a way that’s unnatural to their nature.”

Modern Band Summit is put on by Music Will, previously known as Little Kids Rock, a national educational organization supported by the Fort Collins-based Bohemian Foundation and others.

“Music Will believes that when kids participate in music programs and receive teaching that reflects who they are, they are better equipped to bring positive change to the world,” the organization said on the introductory page of its Modern Band Summit program.

Wright, now chair of professional music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, shared that message during a hip-hop roundtable discussion that was one of the highlights of the three-day conference for music educators that ended Friday.

Joined on stage in the main ballroom at the Lory Student Center on Thursday afternoon by Rawls, Herawin, creative artist Y? — all music educators themselves — and Diaz, the hip-hop panel described the role the uplifting form of street music played in each of their lives.

Then they brought up a drummer and two guitar players to demonstrate not just their musical talent with a sing- and dance-along performance, but also the simplicity of expressing themselves through hip-hop music. Y? went into the audience and asked random people to share what they were thinking in a single word, then sang that word musically to a hip-hop beat as the room full of music educators sang, danced and clapped along.

Music, the panel reminded their audience, is an art form that can be used to communicate, teach and learn.

And modern music, be it rap or hip-hop, pop, Latin or R&B, often speaks to those who would otherwise be left behind in our education system.

That struck a chord with Lacey Kinsey and Jessica Wagoner, two graduate students in music education at the University of Akron. They both grew up in predominantly white, middle-class communities, learning music the traditional way through participation in one of the three disciplines schools focused on — choir, band or orchestra.

Three separate worlds, at many schools, several of the music educators said.

The Music Will curriculum, which one of their college professors embraces, is designed to break down those silos and bring the kind of music people are listening to — on their radios, smartphones, from street musicians in their neighborhoods — into their schools.

It is designed to help reach students who might otherwise “fall through the cracks,” Kinsey said. And it seamlessly brings an important element of “cultural inclusivity” into the classroom, Wagoner said.

There were breakout sessions at the Modern Band Summit on Arabic and mariachi music; folk music from the Dominican Republic; digital music production, including an iPad ensemble; songwriting; guitar playing; drumming; prioritizing student voices in the classroom; creating and teaching a course on modern band; and dozens of other instructional opportunities.

There were 400 music educators attending in person and 115 more participating virtually, Music Will interim CEO Janice Polizzotto said.

“There were all kinds of fun ideas to incorporate into my classroom to help all students be engaged and have fun in music for life,” said Shelly Peterson, who teaches in Fort Collins at McGraw Elementary School. “I haven’t even had time to process them all. I’ve had some really outstanding sessions.”

Others came from all over the country to participate in the annual event, now in its 11th year overall and eighth at CSU.

Many have attended previous Modern Band Summits, which count toward the professional development hours many states require for teachers to retain and renew their licenses. They reconnected with colleagues they met at previous events, shared ideas and gathered each night for jam sessions in the dormitories at Laurel Village where they were staying.

Willie Minor was attending the summit for the fourth time. The highlight for him this year was meeting Collins, the keynote speaker who got his start leading James Brown’s backup band in the 1970s.

“I grew up listening to him and to actually meet him and get to shake his hand and even take a picture with him was great,” Minor said. “This is my fourth year coming here. This whole experience has been great.”

Others were first-timers, excited to learn how they could energize their students and schools with a new approach to teaching music.

David Miller, a high school music teacher from Burlington, Connecticut, was seeking input to help expand the modern music curriculum in his state from the organization that pioneered that curriculum nationally, he said.

Aamon Richardson, an elementary school teacher from Brooklyn, New York, was furiously scribbling down notes during the hip-hop roundtable, exploring ways to expand on the lessons he created from attending previous professional development sessions closer to home through Music Will.

“I teach in east Harlem, and the kids are so talented,” said Nicole Levin, a longtime teacher from New York City who is launching a new music program at her elementary school in New York City. “They can’t read or write, but they would probably be able to if they had enough people who understand who would let them show their talent. In my room, I let them do that. It’s pretty cool.”

“… I like what music allows, what music facilitates, the way you can see kids just blossom. But they all have their own take on it. They wouldn’t get a chance from their families, they have no theater etiquette, they have no experience. But they do know hip-hop; they get it.”

The inclusivity of the Modern Band model was a big hit with Chris Lee-Rodriguez, a music teacher at a school serving mostly immigrant families in East Boston. About half of his students are English-language learners, mostly from Central and South America, who really struggle to find connections at school.

“What music is, at its bare minimum, at its essence, is culture and community,” he said. “In my community, the kids don’t want to be there. Our schools look old — our building is over 100, maybe 120 years old with huge infrastructure problems — and the teachers don’t look like them.

“What music does is provide a way to develop a culture and bring community together, and it really contributes to the school community.”

Read more by Kelly Lyell at The Coloradoan.

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