Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: southpaw on March 04, 2008, 10:23:00 AM
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We lost a great guitarist today. Died of cancer at age of 41 but leaves us a superb musical legacy.
If you are not familiar with Jeff, check out his music, amazing the obstacles he overcame in his short life. Thoughts & prayers to his family.
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I saw him in Glasgow last year. A superb talent who will be sadly missed.
Graeme
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..another great musician has left......
Read about this today in a local newspaper. Very sad.
A great talent he was.....
Oliver (Spyderman)
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From the New York Times
Jeff Healey, a Canadian guitarist, singer and songwriter whose band sold millions of blues-rock records and who also pursued a passion for old-time jazz, playing the trumpet and clarinet, died on Sunday in Toronto. He was 41.
Skip to next paragraph
Stephen Chernin/Associated Press
Jeff Healey in 2000.
He died of lung cancer, his publicists said.
Mr. Healey, who was blind, played his guitar with the instrument flat on his lap, resulting in what Guitar Player magazine called ?astoundingly fluid bends and vibrato.? He blended jazz, rock and the blues.
Mr. Healey?s greatest success came in the late 1980s, when his band recorded the album ?See the Light.? It reached platinum status in the United States by selling more than one million copies and eventually two million worldwide. A single from that album, ?Angel Eyes,? was the Jeff Healey Band?s only Top 40 hit, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1989.
The same year the band performed the soundtrack for ?Road House,? a movie starring actor Patrick Swayze. The band also had speaking parts. Soon the group was big enough to be booked in stadiums.
Mr. Healey also played the trumpet and clarinet in his own traditional jazz band, the Jazz Wizards. He collected as many as 30,000 old-time jazz records, mainly those on 78 r.p.m., which he played as the host of an hour-long radio show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Mr. Healey, son of a firefighter, was born and raised near Toronto. He lost his sight to eye cancer when he was a year old and was given his first guitar two years later. At a school for the blind, he was shown how to play the guitar the usual way but found it felt more comfortable on his lap.
At a Toronto-area high school he played the guitar and trumpet in school bands. His early guitar inspirations were country stylists like Chet Atkins, but he moved on to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and B. B. King, according to the reference work Contemporary Musicians. He studied music theory on his own.
He formed the Jeff Healey Band in 1985, with the drummer Tom Stephen and the bassist Joe Rockman. The trio gave as many as 300 concerts a year for about two years before signing with Arista Records in 1988. Their second album for the label (after ?See the Light?) was ?Hell to Pay,? which featured guest artists including George Harrison.
As the group?s popularity grew, so did their concert venues. Jon Pareles, writing in The New York Times in 1989, described the band?s music as ?showy, arena-style blues rock,? although he praised Mr. Healey?s technique.
In 1990, a reader poll in Guitar Player magazine named Mr. Healey the best blues guitarist and best new talent.
Mr. Healey is survived by his wife, Christie; his daughter, Rachel; and his son, Derek.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/49113.jpg)
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I used to live a few doors up from a local bar in Toronto where Jeff played periodically before his career took off, and I saw him several times there. I remember the first time I saw him. The instant he played a note just to see if his guitar and amp were live and working, you could tell he had a magical gift - he just had the touch and the sound. He was truly a brilliant musician in whatever idiom he chose on whatever instrument he touched.
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Im shocked to hear of the passing of Jeff, a wonderful talent and fine human being!
My sincere condolances to everybody that loved him, a terrible loss
John.
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Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBBCJ68mC4c)
He could tear it up. His left hand technique is pretty amazing to see.
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And Roadhouse Blues (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIZywo3PBTE)
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How'd you like to be able to tell your kids you were at this show? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqU9RZqvFKY&feature=related)
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Dave, DUDE that See The Light video was incredible. Jef was ON! And the band was tight.
Thanks,
Olie
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Olie, that was Marcus on bass and I believe Omar Hakim on drums.
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And Dr. John on piano.
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I just watched it again; even better the second time.
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Olie; the SRV video was pretty cool too!
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Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj7ur_PZu6U) is another copy of the SRV vid with a little better quality video.
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I recognized Marcus and Dr John but wasn't sure about the drums. Great videos.
Jeff was an incredibly smooth and fluid player. A lot like Stevie the lines just flowed out. Great stuff man. I could watch these all night , , and just might too will have to open a fresh merlot though.
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It's funny how it's not mentioned much about Jeff's role in the movie Roadhouse.. not only a great guitar player, but he added a lot to that movie.