Jazz musician plays guitar during brain surgery

South African jazz musician Musa Manzini has had his most remarkable performance: the man played the guitar while undergoing brain surgery in a hospital in Durban.

On images in South African media, you can see how Manzini plays guitar on the operating table while surgeons tinker with his brain. The artist underwent the surgery because of a brain tumour. The doctors chose to keep the musician conscious and to play to keep an eye on his brain activity. In this way they reduce the risk of neurological damage.

Manzini stated afterwards that it had felt “very strange and uncomfortable”. “I was in a kind of narcosis, but I was awake. In the meantime, I heard the sound of a cutting torch in my head, it was very difficult to concentrate.”

The operation was ultimately successful. The jazz artist therefore intends to simply perform in a normal way again.