Just saw "My Coma Dreams" by Fred Hersch at the Miller Theatre on Columbia University campus in Manhattan. This was billed as a “Jazz Theater,” as good a description as any. Fred Hersch is a first-rank jazz pianist who suffered sepsis and an 8-week drug-induced coma at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan in 2008. During his coma, he heard and saw or dreamed many things, and he has written music to express some of it. He has also told his experiences to others, as has his partner, Scott, who lived with him through it. Herschel Garfein conceived, wrote and directed this multi-media presentation of Fred's experiences. Sarah Wickliffe did animated versions of some of the images (and riffs off those images) that came to him during that time. An 11-piece ensemble (string quartet, 2 reeds, 2 brass, bass and drums) performed the music, which Fred Hersch himself wrote, with Fred at the piano. Michael Winther was the actor who played both Fred and Scott, and the video ran in the background (video systems credited to Eamonn Farrell). It was produced by The Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Miller Theater on Columbia campus today, March 2. Bill and I saw the 3 pm show. It was thrilling and moving and riveting. The performance we saw was also recorded, so I’m hoping that it will be available for purchase at some time. Some of the visions were nightmarish: Being helpless and strapped down in the back of a panel van, hearing the driver –as they hurtled through the streets -- saying, “You must pay to be released,” but not being able to move his hand to get his wallet out; Finding himself in a 5’x5’ cage alongside Theolonius Monk (in a 6’x6’ cage), and being told whoever wrote a song first would be released – while Monk smiled a serene smile as if he knew something Fred did not. Some of them were comic: Finding he had committed to a gig at a diner in the woods, where the woman who ran it was incredibly demanding, as if this were a great venue in a great location. Some of them were heartbreaking: His partner’s face gazing at him with love from within a green orb, calling to him to come back. Some of them were simply mysterious: He was in a room, and in the room below him was a circle of women in dark, devout clothing who were knitting, knitting, knitting, and whispering to each other. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but as they knitted, a goose would come into being off the end of one pair of needles, and fly away, and then another off another pair and so on.
The music likewise went through many moods: tender, Thelonius Monk-like (angular, dryly humorous, drivingly rhythmic), wild, serene, and all very beautiful, With the man himself at the piano, his story was all the more riveting. This is someone my husband, Bill, considers "in the running" for the best living jazz pianist.
I had the privilege of being able to speak with Fred afterwards briefly, and to ask him if any chaplains made a difference in his stay. He said he couldn’t remember any chaplains, though he assumed they were there, and all of the staff were wonderful. But somebody’s rabbi did visit, and Fred did experience him as a “solid” presence. Fred denied being “a Jewish Jew,” but appreciated this one particular man. This was a completely unforgettable experience for me, and if I can get the dvd of it, I’d love to present it to others. It ran about 1 hour and 20 minutes, no intermission.
The music likewise went through many moods: tender, Thelonius Monk-like (angular, dryly humorous, drivingly rhythmic), wild, serene, and all very beautiful, With the man himself at the piano, his story was all the more riveting. This is someone my husband, Bill, considers "in the running" for the best living jazz pianist.
I had the privilege of being able to speak with Fred afterwards briefly, and to ask him if any chaplains made a difference in his stay. He said he couldn’t remember any chaplains, though he assumed they were there, and all of the staff were wonderful. But somebody’s rabbi did visit, and Fred did experience him as a “solid” presence. Fred denied being “a Jewish Jew,” but appreciated this one particular man. This was a completely unforgettable experience for me, and if I can get the dvd of it, I’d love to present it to others. It ran about 1 hour and 20 minutes, no intermission.