'Music is one of the best cures': Jazz comes to Jewish General Hospital
JGH Jazz is a series of free concerts at the hospital that runs from June 4 to 15
Mariam Nesa is anxious. She's pregnant, and her baby is a week late.
But a special jazz performance in the waiting room at the Jewish General Hospital is helping to ease her anxiety.
"She is a little bit nervous but is enjoying the sound," said her husband, Mohamed Keramot, translating for his Bengali-speaking wife as their son runs around them, dancing.
"Everybody needs music," says West African folk musician Madou Diarra, who's also an orderly at the hospital.
He and his ensemble gave the first concert of JGH Jazz, a series of free performances at the hospital that runs from June 4 to 15.
"Before a baby's born, in the mother's tummy, a baby has music."
Patients and staff alike say the lunchtime concerts add a special quality to their day.
The hospital's music therapists organize the festival, which is in its 19th year. One of them, Samuel Minevich, says the concerts are extremely beneficial to patients.
"I've seen people who don't even know how to speak talk," he said. "I've seen people who have severe Alzheimer's sing along with the song."
Sabrina Madran was at the JGH Wednesday, recovering from surgery to have a benign tumour on one of her saliva glands removed. She was having lunch with her son when Diarra began performing.
"It brings you out a little bit," she said. "It's perfect."
For Uri Bender, a third-year medical student working at the hospital who's also a drummer, the music was a good way to take his mind off the stress of the day.
"I think that music is one of the best cures," Bender said.
"It's a wonderful initiative today. It's a good, holistic approach to medicine."
The concerts are outside, in front of the Côte-des-Neiges Road entrance. If it rains, they're held in the Carrefour Lea Polansky on the hospital's first floor. For more information, visit JHG Jazz.
With files from Sudha Krishnan