Jazz musician Stanton Kessler was surprised when he was contacted recently by his friend, a hospice nurse, who reached out to him with an unusual request.
A patient at the Kansas City hospice where she works told her his last wish would be to hear his favorite song, ‘Feels So Good’ before he died.
During their conversations Kessler’s impression was that this was his friend’s first experience with a request such as this.
“There was an element of urgency,” Kessler said. “She said he was near death.”
The patient had experienced a sharp decline in his health about a week before Kessler had received the request.
The hospice nurse had asked Kessler politely if the time of his visit would be convenient for him. “I told her that death was never convenient and that I could not refuse a dying person’s request to hear music before their transition,” Kessler said.
Out of respect for the patient’s family, Kessler does not want to reveal the specific hospice or the patient’s name. After communicating with the nurse, Kessler went to the patient’s bedside at his earliest opportunity.
“We were hoping I could get there before he died. When I arrived he was just skin and bones, just a shell of a man. He was breathing, but his eyes were closed and he did not move or speak.”
An incredibly emotional and rewarding moment followed when Kessler began to play the patient’s beloved song. The man’s eyes remained closed, but his fingers began to move.
Kessler knew that although the man could only acknowledge his reaction to the song by moving his fingers, he was experiencing one of his greatest joys in life as he drew closer to passing.
“I felt moved, and pleased that he seemed to hear the music,” Kessler said. “ I am very pragmatic about natural things like death, however, it was an emotional moment when he moved his fingers, and I did feel like I had done something selfless for another human being.”
The man’s family members were very grateful for how their loved one experienced his last, calming moments of joy. And this was one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience for Kessler.
When he finished playing and was leaving the hospice, Kessler said he just felt good, and uplifted, like he had given a gift to the man and his family.
The song that Kessler played for the man was one that he knew well as a lifelong jazz musician. ‘Feels So Good’ is an instrumental composition written and produced by Chuck Mangione, and is the title track from his 1977 album of the same name, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
“When it first came out in the late 70s I was expected to play it every night since I had a flugelhorn,” Kessler said. “I sometimes had to play it twice in one gig.”
Inspired at an early age to become a musician, Kessler has been a member of the band, Sons of Brasil for 33 years.
“I was around music from the get go. My mother played piano very well and my father sang. I was inspired to play trumpet after hearing Al Hirt on the radio.”
He also plays flugelhorn, drums and a little piano.
“I’ve been interested in Latin Jazz since high school, but it really kicked in hard when I started leading my own bands in the late 70s. Samba and Bossa Nova were always on my mind, then I became deeply involved in Afro-Cuban music.”
He has been performing in the Kansas City metro area all of his life, and regionally since the mid 1970s.
He also teaches jazz improv and theory privately and does clinics in high schools in the KC area. He also adjudicates at jazz festivals and was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for 22 years.
Kessler has also performed hundreds of times with local jazz singer, Angela Hagenbach, who also heads Weston’s Black Ancestors Awareness Campaign.
“I was part of her first gig after she left the runway model phase of her life, Kessler said. “I was a semi-regular member of her band for most of her active performing career. What a pleasure!”
It was very comforting for Kessler knowing that he fulfilled someone’s last wish. And when asked about the idea of asking hospice patients, close to death, if they would like to have their favorite song played by a musician, since being surrounded by loved ones and music would be the perfect ending for many people, Kessler said, “Sure, why not. At least the question could be asked as part of a standard questionnaire.”
He was also asked what song he would choose if he were in a similar hospice situation.
“Ha, good question,” Kessler said. “How about Essay #2 by Samuel Barber. Check it out.”