I'm not sure why, but just watching this brought tears to my eyes. Ben E. King's song has always been special to me, in fact, I can't remember a time when I didn't know it.
Basically, Mark Johnson had musicians from around the world play together across geography and time. Each performer added and built onto the combination of the artists before them.
PlayingforChange via Metafilter
Here's the description on the Youtube video of this project. There's also a trailer for the documentary.
From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.Join the Movement to help build schools, connect students, and inspire communities in need through music.
There's also an Bill Moyers interview with Mark Johnson. It's a little long (about 20 minutes), but what's that compared to the 10 years that it took to make the documentary?
Update: Okay, the Bill Moyers interview is kind of meh. A little trite, but I guess you get some insight on the whole endeavor.