On Thursday, January 28, it seemed the roof of the Spaulding Auditorium was on the verge of collapse over a largely unsuspecting audience.

Fortunately, the brilliance of the Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra stopped at shaking the dust off of Spaulding’s rafters. The band’s potent concoction seductively combined sultry modern jazz with the sounds of the city, as their thin tendrils of smoky sound snuck through the audience like the mist on a cold mountain day.

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra was formed in 1966 by jazz legends Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and they’ve never looked back. When Lewis died in 1990, they changed their name to honor their favorite night club, the Village Vanguard. In 2009, they won the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance in recognition of their album Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard.

Vanguard’s set kicked off with a stirring rendition of the jazz standard “Mean What You Say,” an upbeat composition to start the audience’s journey. From there, the band slipped into “Eye of the Hurricane.” Keyed by Gary Smulyman’s frenetic baritone saxophone solo, the performance was so riveting that the floor shook with the vibrations of two thousand tapping feet. The trumpets spoke the truth of life itself. After this, Vanguard waltzed into the highlight of their performance, “St. Louis Blues.” The band started out with a slow march, which gradually picked up into an up-tempo weave of passionate, triumphant swing. Replete with joy, the fast section sank into Jim McNeely’s poignant piano break, retrieving the main theme once again closing the great circle the group had painted for us.

The performance was remarkable for a variety of reasons. Each member of the band had clearly reached the absolute height of their craft on their respective instruments, and expertly displayed all of their incredible skills throughout the entire show. They tore through some incredible passages—whether improvised, fixed, or a little of both—without missing so much as a note, and what’s more, they did it with emotion. The highlight, however, was the onstage chemistry and the connection the group forged with the audience. The group would laugh and joke amongst themselves onstage during the songs, and then cue the audience into becoming as much a part of the act as they were. They reached out to us, asked us to give feedback, and acted out their music. They danced, they bobbed, and they made funny faces, making this performance as memorable as possible.

Good performances lead to a sense of happiness and a sort of satisfaction. Great performances sweep the brain’s folds—a housecleaning for the mind. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra put on a truly great performance.

Players must try to stay alive as they navigate a Sudanese refugee camp. Screenshot from darfurisdying.com

As I peered through the desiccated brush—hoping to make a mad dash to the water pump to bring back desperately needed nourishment to my family—I caught sight of yet another dreaded Janjaweed patrol. Damn, not again!

For the past week, my family had sent me into the desert along to forage for water, seemingly neglecting the fact that I, as their oldest son, would certainly be left for dead if the militia caught up with me. Nonetheless, fetching water, if slightly less desirable than burger flipping, was my duty; without water, we would surely perish. I continued about my duty, ever vigilant, ever watchful.

Finally, I stumbled back into the refugee camp, my home for the past week. The buildings were in shambles, the crops were sickly, and the spirits of the inhabitants were crushed like a flower under a boot. I went to water our sickly potatoes, and then…

My browser quits.

You see, I’m not actually a poor, starving refugee from Darfur at all. Instead, I’ve been playing MTV’s “Darfur is Dying” game, discovering from the comfort of my desk in Berry 3 exactly what it’s like to be poor, starving, and desperate. I’ve survived dozens of paramilitary attacks, cried with emaciated widows, and pleaded for help with the international community without even leaving my seat.

‘Darfur is Dying” certainly has a noble aim at heart, trying as it does to educate people about the disaster unfolding in Chad and Sudan using a comfortable, familiar medium.

However, it effectively dehumanizes the conflict as being, yes, no more than a game. There were some heartbreaking notes to be found in the game, but at the end I was more concerned about making it onto the leaderboard than I was about the welfare of Darfur’s refugees.

Another problematic issue with “Darfur” is that only people who are already interested in the Darfur conflict will play. It’s preaching to the choir. The only way to increase international awareness of the genocide is to make more people aware of the genocide. If MTV’s game isn’t reaching out to a new audience, then what is it accomplishing?

To solve the Darfur conflict, the world needs a way to publicize the crisis accurately, and more importantly, it needs to publicize it without being despairing or tacky. Does the Darfur game fit this framework? I’m not sure it does, but for now, it certainly can’t hurt.