Blog 13...September 2012


For me, jazz has always been associated with late nights in smoky bars, but on a warm sunny day this summer, in a beautiful rooftop garden with lush flowers and greenery in the foreground, skyscrapers and traffic in the background, I changed my mind.  Under a canopy of chainmail, surrounded by patients, visitors and staff at the Princess Margaret Hospital, a group of musicians blew, strummed and sang their hearts out for all of us.                                                                                                    

Jazz for the Soul is the brainchild of long time jazz fan Sharon Wright. who has been successful in finding and engaging an incredible range of musicians - duos, trios, quartets, sometimes just instrumentalists, sometimes a vocalist. Many people who participate have been touched in some way by cancer themselves and are generous with their time and talent. My first time there I met a bass player who had once accompanied Anita O’Day… how cool is that?

Princess Margaret Hospital is a diagnostic and treatment centre for people with cancer in downtown Toronto.  Jazz for the Soul is part of Healing Beyond the Body, a Cancer and the Arts Program in the Psychosocial Oncology Department and Palliative Care Department where Sharon works as EA to chief Gary Rodin.

We’re all moved by music, by our mother’s heartbeat, her lullabies, military, wedding and funeral marches and everything in between. Music touches our emotions, memory, intellect and mood like nothing else can. It can give pleasure, reduce pain and release sorrow - no wonder music has been in the air at PMH since Music in the Atrium began a decade ago. The experience was extended this year to include Jazz for the Soul, held every Friday at noon during the summer months in the Max Tannenbaum Garden on the 16th floor.

Hospital staff have begun to notice that some out patients are scheduling their appointments in combination with the jazz sessions.  Family members and friends who accompany or visit patients appreciate the opportunity to engage in something normal, helping to turn what can be a tense situation into something to share…some pleasure, a distraction, maybe a chance to release sorrow.

Music crosses boundaries of age, language, background, class and physical and mental state.  Watch for Jazz and the Soul next summer, or for more info, contact Info@Jazz for the Soul.com.

                                  And, yup that’s me, wearing green and slumped beside Sharon.

No comments:

Post a Comment