Music and dementia

April 17, 2012 at 1:34 pm (Cross-post, humanism, jazz, Jim D, mental health, music, Sheer joy, song, welfare)

Meet My New Favorite Music Critic!

A rather moving post from M. Figg at Aesthetic, Not Anesthetic :

.

And he loves Cab Calloway. The man knows his stuff.

Ask him if he knows the date of the recording, or if there are any alternate takes. Find out if he thinks the arrangement used any interesting techniques, or if the soloists were innovators. Ask if he wishes the lyrics were more political, or if he remembers Calloway’s skin color.

Those are all important, often enlightening facts this person may not have access to at this time in his life. Yet his suddenly open, instantly joyous eyes somehow seem far more important.

JD adds: I notice that towards the end of the clip Henry starts singing Cole Porter’s ’Rosalie.’ As far as I know, Cab Calloway never recorded that particular song, but here’s a great version by Artie Shaw’s Orchestra (vocal: Tony Pastor) that I think is what he may have been remembering. This is for you, Henry:

More on this important topic, here and here.