lifestyles
By Scott Mullen Special to the Kansan
How do vou spell relief? M-U-S-I-C.
"Music is essential to the quality of life," said Alicia Clair, professor and director of the department of music therapy. "It brings about emotional feelings that cause chemical changes in the body. It changes breathing patterns, blood pressure... It can be the beginning point of creativity."
It hasn't been until recent years that music therapy has gained public attention. The University of Kansas' music therapy department and its community services soon will be featured in a national magazine, Music Inc.
"The magazine's intention is to document music therapy ongoingly and show what can be done with music in a positive manner," said Tom Alexios, writer for Music Inc.
Music therapy allows people to focus attention on something they are familiar with; music.
"Music is integrated our lives in many ways," Clair said. "It is used at many formal
occasions, from weddings to funerals. The memories music brings us can be both good and bad."
KU has been a leader in teaching music as medicine and was the first university to establish a master's program in music therapy.
However, the therapeutic technique didn't form in a classroom. Music therapy evolved more than fifty years ago from singalongs held for hospital patients.
At the end of World War II, American hospitals were flooded with shell-shocked soldiers. Fearful and nervous war veterans desperately needed relief from the mental anguish picking at their sanity. Clair said.
"Volunteers from the community went into hospitals and played music to help make the veterans feel secure," she said. "These hospital musicians would sing and play music for the soldiers and often organized dances for the war veterans."
"The music therapy theories they used then are very similar to the ones we use now," Clair said.
big nurses and has used music to try to improve the patients' quality of life. She has
Like volunteers of the World War II era, Clair has visited veterans hospitals and nursing homes and has used music to try to
improve the patients quantity of life. She has focused on the elderly and has found that music gives life to depressed and unresponsive patients.
Fg "Music provides people with a way — an excuse — to get together," she said. "Music helps them remember good times."
Is it possible for a patient with Alzheimer's
possible for a paudent with Alzheimer's disease to respond to musical notes? The disease, which affects the structure of the Co.
brain, attacks motor skills and progressively causes victims to lose the ability to speak, walk and even breathe.
But somehow, the sound of music has broken down the walls of Alzheimer's that can destroy the loving relationships between family and patient.
One of Clair's success stories includes a woman whose husband suffers from Alzheimer's. During a reception held at a nursing home, the man danced with his wife for the first time in years.
Andv Rullestad / KANSAN
"After the dance, I found the woman standing in the hallway crying." Clair said, "She looked at me and said, 'Do you know what you've done? My husband hasn't held me in over three and a half years. It feels so good!'"
Clark said that emotional intimacy often was missing when a spouse had Alzheimer's. Music gives some of the intimacy back.
Michelle Sanford, Fairfax, Va, junior (behind music stand) helps direct a music therapy session with residents of Cottonwood Inc., a home for people with mental disabilities. The residents were making up lyrics to reflect their emotions.
Music therapy isn't just for the elderly.
It can lift the spirits of patients from all ages, including burn victims. "Burning is the most intense pain anyone could live through," said Della Clayton, a graduate teaching assistant in music therapy. "A burn victim has pain all the time. The treatments are very painful as well."
Clayton has worked firsthand with burn victims at the burn center at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
Although burn victims are given anesthesia before surgery, they must remain conscious for treatments known as "tubbing" and "debridement." During these treatments, medics scrub the excess tissue and debris from the patient's burnt skin. Patients are not given tranquilizers to ease pain in fear that they will become addicted to the drugs.
Yet one item has proved to cool the patients' fiery pain: the music provided by a compact disc player.
"Music therapy provides immediate comfort for the patients and takes them away from the trauma they're going through," Clayton said. "By listening to music, it allows them to focus on something other than their pain."
One note does not fit all, however. Patients respond better to music that they like and would listen to normally. "If for thirty minutes a day I can bring a patient relief without medication give them an opportunity to belong to somebody again — then that's significant," Clair said. "Music therapy takes people away from their fear."
SUN 60 : shines like a light bulb
woman.
I called her this week to talk about Sat.
When I hung up about 45 minutes later, I realized I had asked her only one prepared question.
urdy night's Sun 60 show. Instead of talking about her place as a woman in rock, the band's latest album, HEADjoy, or the band itself, which Jones founded with guitarist David Russo, we talked about broken-down vans, drinking in country bars and barbecue.
A: Yeah, since we dumped our van back in Boston.
A: (laughing) Yeah, pretty much. It had broken down so many times we just had to retire it. The final straw was in New York, where we missed a big show in the city. We got all the way to one of the bridges overlooking the skyline. Some greasy mechanic got it to work for a day, so we drove it to Boston. When it broke down there, we said 'to hell with this,' and we 'paked it in the vahd' and left it. It's still there.
Q: Tell me about the current tour.
Everything going smoothly?
Q: Do you mean to say that you abandoned it?
as far as I know.
Q: And things are moving a little smoother now?
A: Yeah, things are pretty good now. I wish we had more days off, though. It seems that on every day off we end up in some small town that really doesn't want a rock' n' roll band hangin' around. Once, in Yellowstone, we were drinking in this country bar when a guy came in with a shotgun. He held the whole place hostage and demanded that someone tell him why the house on the corner had been painted red. It took three big ol' lumberjacks to wrestle him down. And we never did find out why the house was red.
A: Barbecues. Hands down, barbecues are the best way to spend a day. I've got cookbooks that tell how to barbecue lobster tails, oysters, you name it. Once, we had a barbecue at my brother's place in L.A. after the last earthquake. He lives in one of those stilt-houses on the hill, so everybody was afraid to go to his house. Well, things got a little out of hand, and we nearly set the house on fire. Then it started shaking, and we thought it would collapse. Everybody started running away, trying to get out of the house. We ended up out in the street, watching the barbecue burn the hell out of our food.
Q: So that's a typical day off on the road?
A: (laughing) No, no. That was definitely one of the better ones.
Q: I'm assuming you do a lot of interviews. What would be the ideal interview topic for you?
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Jones and the rest of Sun 60 wil
SUN 60
the rest of Sun 60 will play tomorrow night at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Brother, a folk-rock band from Australia, will open the show. Call the Bottleneck at 841-5483 for ticket information.
Margi Coleman (Priority). Ever notice the recent trend in female r&b divas? Fashion and sex appeal seem more important than music. I mean, would T.L.C. have been as successful if they didn't
have chiseled abs and joggers? I want to see an r&b singer who gets by on her talent, not good looks and low-cut tank tons.
That's why I like this debut disc from Margi Coleman. Sure, she has the sultry voice and the requisite seductive themes, but she also has some strong
opinions and best of all, a band. She writes her own songs and has a very capable bunch of musicians backing her up. In a perfect world, this disc would shift a little attention back to the way r&b music used to be played. Sadly, Coleman likely will join Dionne Ferris and the Brand New Heavies in the category of 'Best R&B Artists Not Attractive Enough to Sell Guess Jeans.' And that's really too bad. Overall, out of 10:7
In From the Storm
Various Artists
(RCA/Victor). When I saw this disc, I thought producer Eddie Kramer had gone too far. Since Jimi Hendrix's death in 1970, Kramer has overseen the production (good and bad) of every posthumous release, from 1972's Band of Gypsies (good) to 1993's Stone Free tribute (bad). For In From the Storm, Kramer assembled an all-star cast of musicians to play Hendrix songs with the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
moments. Overall: 6
As I opened the disc, visions of grocery-store rentals of Hendrix classics gave me shivers. Thankfully, the ensemble of musicians was just too good to have the orchestra drag them down. Sting, Carlos Santana, Bootsy Collins, Noel Redding, Corey Glover, Steve Val, Doug Pennick and others add great performances to the disc. Even the orchestra, directed by Michael Kamen, has its
Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits Various Artists (Backyard/Pravda). Remember those great K-Tel Records compilations? They were the 1970s predecessors for today's Time-Life "Mellow Gold: Hits of the '80s" disc sets you see on television. On one
cheap record, you could get all the year's one-hit wonders without having to sit through the bad albums.
Backyard Records, in a rare moment of unabashed nostalgia, decided to approach some popular bands with the idea of making a K-Tel cover album. The result is hilarious and hard-rocking. The New Duncan Imperials' static-filled version of C.W. McCall's "Convoy" is laugh-out-loud funny, and Figdish, who will open for Letters to Cleo Tuesday at the Bottleneck, adds a version of
"Kung-fu Fighting" that is good enough for a little Lager radio play.
But the highlight of the album, which also features Bo Bud Greene and Southern Culture on the Skids is the Smashing Pumpkins version of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils" "Jackie Blue." If you can't wait any longer for new Pumpkins songs, this disc offers a morsel to tide you over. If you're a '70s fan, this album ought to make you smile, if not burst into laughter. Overall: 8
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 8A
Nightlife Calendar
Tonight
Grither, 10 p.m., at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $4-$5.
Monkey Meet, 10 p.m., at The Jazzhaus of Lawrence,
926 1/2 Massachusetts St. Cost $4.
Smoot Mahuti, 9:30 p.m., at Johnnie's Tavern, 401 N. Second St. Cover charge.
Red Dog Reunion, a benefit for the Seem To Be players, featuring Liverpool, 8 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St. Cost: $25-$35 a pair.
Blues Jam Session, 10 p.m., at Full Moon Cafe, 803 Massachusetts St. Free.
Monterey Jack, 11 p.m., at Mulligan's, 1016 Massachusetts St. Cover charge.
Sun 60, 10 p.m., at The Bottleneck. Cost: $5-$6.
Smoot Mahuti, 9:30 p.m., at Johnnie's Tavern. Cover charge.
Carol Dressler, 6 p.m., at Full Moon Cafe, Free.
Darrel Lee and Megan Hurt, 10 p.m., at Full Moon Cafe. Free.
Voo Doo Glowskulls, 8 p.m., at The Bottleneck. Cost:
$8-$10.
Monday
= Spiritualize, 10 p.m., at The Bottleneck. Cost: $7-$8.
Spiritualize, 10 p.m. at The Bottleneck. Cost: $7-$8.
Bluegrass Concert, featuring J.D. Crowe, Laurie Lewis and Del McCoury, 8 p.m. at Liberty Hall. Cost: $14.
Tuesday
Letters to Cleo, 10 p.m., at The Bottleneck. Cost: $7-$8.
Bill Maxwell, 8 p.m., at Full Moon Cafe. Free.
Wednesday
Pol Dog Pondering, 10 p.m., at The Bottleneck. Cost $6.
Mouth Wide Open, with Soul Babies, 10 p.m., at The Jazzhaus. Cost $3.
Shaggy, 8 p.m., at Liberty Hall. Cost: $10.
8 p.m. at the Holm Cafe, Free.
So What 5 p.m., at Full Moon Thursday.
Punkinhead, 10 p.m., at the Bottleneck. Cost: $4-$5.
Carson Sheffey, 10 p.m., at The Jazzhaus. Cost: $3