When you see how active he is, it's hard to believe Cesare "Chez" Crispigni is nearly 80 years old.
The Moroccan-born Australian with Italian and Spanish parents, enthusiastically dances, sings and plays a tambourine in the corridors and wards of Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital.
The music he and his three fellow minstrels — all between 77 and 80 years old — play is infectious, with hospital visitors stopping to sing along or tap their feet.
"Come on! Shake it to the rhythm!" Mr Crispigni said to the crowd, clearly a born entertainer.
"I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart," the band sings, as Mr Crispigni pulls some spectators into the group to dance.
About 15 years ago Mr Crispigni was a patient at the hospital.
It was the treatment, both medically and personally, that Mr Crispigni received at the hospital that made him want to volunteer.
"I had a quadruple bypass in this hospital and within three days I was back at home and I thought 'I must fight back and give whatever I can back to the community'," he said.
He is now one of the hospital's longest-serving volunteers, turning up every week to sing for patients and visitors.
"Music is very important — I think it is a vessel to conduct the medicine to act better … to the cells to the brain, through the body," he said.
Chelsea and Christine Sinclair, two visitors who started dancing along, said it was not what they expected to see at a hospital.
"It was amazing — beautiful Christmas spirit," Christine Sinclair said.
"They're spreading lots of love and good energy to the hospital which is what a hospital needs," Chelsea Sinclair said.
Mr Crispigni swears by music being helpful in his recovery and making him feel rejuvenated.
"Much younger, 100 per cent younger," he said.
"I think it's the music — music saved my life. I think everyone should play music."
Mr Crispigni said he also got enjoyment from bringing joy to others.
"The joy I see on the patients' [faces], the family, the staff — that's what I thrive on — I become a better person," he said, with no sign his age, or his heart, would be slowing him down anytime soon.
Clinical nurse at the hospital, Nina Simpson, said the role Mr Crispigni and his fellow musicians played brought "joy and happiness" to the waiting rooms.
"It can be an overwhelming place to be at times," she said.
"It's quite nice for them [the patients] to think about something else other than their treatment or what they are coming to see the doctor for," Ms Simpson said.
"So it makes everyone happy to be honest."
She also thinks the music would be beneficial for recovery.
"There'd be definite benefits to music in therapy, they've shown that."
