Canadian musician JEFF HEALEY has died

[charlene]

THis is really very very sad to hear. He was an awesome guitar player and horn player. His bar downtown is a music mecca.
He lost his sight as a baby to cancer and in the last few years has been ferociously battling it again..He was only 41. Tomorrow is the release of his latest album.
I am so sorry to hear this news.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080302/jeff_healey_080302/20080302?hub=TopStories

His website:
http://www.jeffhealey.com/home.htm

His Beautiful song - ANGEL EYES:
YouTube - The Jeff Healey Band-Angel Eyes (Music Video)
and other videos of Jeff with some of the greatest guitarists around:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jeff+healey&search_type=

[Jesse Joe]

Ronnie Hawkins to name just one, had great admiration for Jeff Healey. Everytime I saw him on TV play that guitar, I was always amazed. Man he could do on a guitar what many of us with perfect eyesight can only wish to even try...


Char you could have not pick a better video, in "Angel Eyes." (Great Song)

This is really sad indeed...

[Jesse Joe]

http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N636.CanadaEast.com/B2697562.2;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=728x90;ord=[timestamp]?

http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=97260&size=300x0

Canadian musician Jeff Healey plays before a crowd of 8,500 in Windsor, Ont. in this July 2001 photo. Healey, arguably one of the most distinctive guitar players of our time, died yesterday in Toronto. He was 41.

Jeff Healey dies of cancer at age 41

Musician earned reputation as teenage prodigy


THE CANADIAN PRESS

Published Monday March 3rd, 2008


TORONTO - Canadian rock and jazz musician Jeff Healey died yesterday in a Toronto hospital after a battle with cancer, his publicist said.

He was 41.
Healey's battle with cancer began at age one when he lost his sight due to Retinoblastoma, a rare form of retinal cancer.
Due to his blindness, Healey taught himself to play guitar by laying the instrument across his lap.
His unique playing style, combined with his blues-oriented vocals, earned him a reputation as a teenage musical prodigy. He shared stages with George Harrison, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
But Healey's true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his three most recent albums.
His death came weeks before the release of his first rock album in eight years.
"Mess of Blues" is slated for a North American release on April 22.
Much of Healey's commercial success came as the frontman for the Jeff Healey Band, a Juno-winning act that achieved platinum record sales in the United States with the 1988 record "See the Light."
Despite deteriorating record sales in the 1990s, Healey kept busy with radio shows on a local Toronto jazz station where he spun long-forgotten classics from his personal collection of more than 30,000 vinyl records.
The Grammy-nominated musician is survived by his wife Christie and two children.

[Jesse Joe]

YouTube - Jeff Healey - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

[charlene]

His young son has the same gene mutation for the eye cancer Jeff had. Jeff was adopted and had no medical history.

Musician Jeff Healey dies of cancer
Jack Spearman and Jessey Bird , Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, March 03, 2008
Guitar wizard Norman Jeff Healey of Toronto died Sunday of cancer. He was 41.

Healey was considered a prodigy and earned numerous Juno and Grammy nominations in the course of his career.

He lost both his eyes to retinoblastoma before he was eight-months-old, but never let that slow him down.

Peter Redman for National Post

What we've lost is a virtuoso musician," said Richard Flohil, Healey's publicist. "He followed his own passion, which oddly enough was not playing blues rock music, but playing classic rock jazz.

"He just cancelled a concert a few days ago in Nepean (Ont.) and we made this very kind of bland, not-to-worry statement," said Flohil. "At that point, we didn't want to say that Jeff was basically dying, although we all knew he was."

The Canadian blues and jazz great died in a Toronto hospital Sunday evening after a lifelong battle with cancer.

Flohil, who had been friends with Healey for about 20 years, said the news of his death will be very hard on his family, friends and fans. "He was lovely," said Flohil. "He was very generous, very warm-hearted, with a great sense of humour."

"He was just an awesome guitar player," said Danny Sivyer, owner of Ottawa blues bar The Rainbow Bistro. Sivyer said he brought Healey to The Rainbow Bistro for his first Ottawa gig when he was just 19-years-old. "He blew us away the first time we heard him." said Sivyer. "We were setting up, it was a busy night, and we looked over and there was this three-piece band with a blind 19-year-old musician."

"Then we sat down and listened and the whole room was stunned," said Sivyer. "Everybody loved him right away."

Healey was only three when he started to play guitar.

By the time he was a teenager, Healey had formed a four-piece band called the Blue Direction and was playing in clubs throughout the Toronto area. His best known work came when he formed the Jeff Healey Band several years later with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen. His career took off when he appeared in the movie Road House, which starred Patrick Swayze.

In 1988, his Grammy-nominated album See the Light included the major hit single, Angel Eyes. In 1990, he earned the Juno for entertainer of the year.

Healey became an internationally-known star who played with musical greats that included B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The Jeff Healey Band was a sellout act across Canada and sold over a million albums in the U.S. market.

But Healey's passion was not always in rock music and later in his career branched into jazz, especially from the golden years of the genre in the 1920s and '30s. He released several jazz CDs and had a collection of some 25,000 78 rpm jazz records.

Until recently, he had a show on a Toronto jazz station CJRT-FM.

Early last year, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue from his legs, and later from both lungs; aggressive radiation treatments and chemotherapy failed to halt the spread of the disease.

Healey - who was adopted as an infant and didn't have any information about his birth parents - said in an interview with the Citizen in July 2005 that he didn't know if he inherited the illness or developed it due to external factors.

"I do not regret the situation I am in at all," he said.

While his daughter, Rachel, didn't inherit the form of retinoblastoma Healey had, his son wasn't so lucky. Amniotic fluid showed that the now three-year-old Derek carried the mutation.

It also wasn't until 2005 that Healey learned that he and his son were at risk for secondary cancers.

"I used to believe that once they had removed my eyes, that was the end of the story," Healey said. "I understand now that having this (mutation) in my blood, this won't be my last encounter with cancer."

In 2005, Healey told the Citizen that while he loved to play regular gigs, he hated spending time in airports.

"A tour is a nasty four-letter word in my vocabulary," he said. "It's something that I did for many, many years and I hate travelling. I love to play and I love to entertain, so to sort of balance things, get the best of both worlds, I'll travel away for two or three days or something like that."

Mess of Blues, Healey's first rock/blues album in eight years, is being released in Europe on March 20, and in Canada and the U.S. on April 22.

Healey is survived by his children, Rachel and Derek, as well as his wife, Cristie, father and stepmother, Bud and Rose Healey, and sisters Laura and Linda. Funeral arrangements are still being made.

His website said Sunday that he died with his wife, Cristie, at his bedside in Toronto's St. Joseph's Hospital.

[podunklander]

Sad to learn of his passing - a great guitarist. Thanks for all the info Jesse and Char.

[lighthead2toe]

Very sad news indeed. The loss of a person that young having the level of musical prodigiousness that Jeff Healey possessed is bound to have a deep effect on all who admired the work of this wonderful person. Gone but never forgotten. At the 60th birthday celebration of Ronnie Hawkins in Massey Hall Jeff Healy was on stage with a host of wonderful musicians including Jerry Lee Lewis. I remember clearly when Jerry Lee heard the sounds coming from the guitar of Jeff he immediately invited him to become his lead guitar player. That sure was one great party. On an interesting note, during the "Singalong Jubilee" days (a CBC weekly musical TV program) there was a blind musician name of Fred McKenna who also played lap style. He played guitar and mandolin that way and also played fiddle in an unorthodox fashion.

[charlene]

I remember Fred..and Singalong Jubilee..omigoodness..

[Jesse Joe]

Fred McKenna was very enjoyable to listen to. I have on VHS tape Fred singing "Steel Rail Blues", he was a big Gordon Lightfoot fan.

[Jesse Joe]

http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=97758&size=300x0
The Canadian Press

Jeff Healey is considered one of the most distinctive guitar players of our time.

N.B. mourns bluesman Jeff Healey

Guitarist was booked to play at this year's Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival

By SHAWN BERRY
canadaeast news service Published Tuesday March 4th, 2008


FREDERICTON - Organizers of the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival are among those mourning the passing of Canadian music legend Jeff Healey.

Festival music director Brent Staeben said the news came unexpectedly.
"I was shocked for sure," he said yesterday. "It's just a devastating loss."
Staeben knew Healey was fighting a fourth bout of cancer, which had cost the exceptional musician his eyesight as a toddler.
When Healey recently signed on for this year's Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival, Staeben figured things were going well.
"I knew that the cancer was back and that he was dealing with it. But to me the fact that he accepted our offer meant that it was really no big deal," he said.
Healey, a champion of jazz and one of the best Canadian bluesmen, had played the Fredericton festival before.
In the three times he performed at Harvest, it was always with his jazz band -- the Jazz Wizards.
That saw Healey stick largely to singing and playing the trumpet.
Jazz was his passion, but Healey was slated to return to the Harvest stage this year to pick up his guitar and play the music that made him famous -- the blues.
"He was going to be a huge piece of the schedule," Staeben said.
Festival organizers began advertising the fact Healey was a confirmed act last month at the East Coast Music Awards staged in the capital.
Staeben said Healey's performances with the Jazz Wizards at the previous events left an indelible mark on the city.
"He spoke to the audience and he had a caustic wit," Staeben said.
"Just from the number of people who have stopped me on the street, called me or e-mailed me, I think it's clear there was a tremendous affection here for Jeff Healey."

[Nightingale]

I am so sad to hear this news.
My brother-in-law is a huge fan and is devastated by the loss.

That's a great clip of him singing My Guitar Gently Weeps...sounds really, really good on that.

We sure are loosing an awful lot of talented people lately.

[Jesse Joe]

Now that Jeff Healey is gone, {Every Guitar Gently Weeps.}

[charlene]

listen at:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/index.php?/performances/20080303heale

[Jesse Joe]

http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=123962&size=265x0 (http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/newstoday/article/286704)

Velvet voice (http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/newstoday/article/286704)

Canadian rocker Alannah Myles belted out Black Velvet while performing at Jeff Healey A Celebration concert in Toronto this weekend.

[charlene]

There were two tribute shows in Toronto this past weekend - one was for his love of rock music and the other was for his love of jazz. He truly was a very much adored person by many, many people. A huge loss to the music scene as well as to his family and friends..
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/04/arts/NA-A-E-MUS-Canada-Healey-Tribute.php

[jj]

Fred McKenna was very enjoyable to listen to. I have on VHS tape Fred singing "Steel Rail Blues", he was a big Gordon Lightfoot fan.

Jesse, i have found the clip of Fred you were referring to ...before you began your 'brian wilson marathon' (come on, get out of bed!;))

YouTube - Steel Rail Blues Fred McKenna