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Jeff Healey, RIP

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- He was blind, Canadian, and played guitar all wrong. Which, for a time, made Jeff Healey an international star -- nearly a superstar -- in the blues and rock worlds. In the end, the cancer which took his sight as a baby took his life at 41. He died Sunday, March 2, at St. Joseph's Hospital, Toronto, Canada.

It wasn't the same cancer, of course. Something called retino blastoma took his sight. By the time he was three he'd taken up the guitar, holding it flat on his lap, chording from the top (instead of the back) of the neck. He also became a serious and legendary collector of 78s -- blues, jazz, all kinds of music. Which meant for all the bombast he was capable of summoning, he also had a sense of what he was drawing on, and how to play with subtlety, as well.

After an appearance in the otherwise marginal film Road House Healey struck a deal with Arista, resulting in 1988's See The Light, a hit single called "Angel Eyes" and a Grammy nomination. The Arista era lasted two more albums, a pretty fair run on a label not known for nurturing the blues.

Live albums and two more rock discs followed, after which he turned to the classic jazz of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He added trumpet to his skill set, and played that and acoustic guitar in a band called Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards. They cut three albums together, most recently It's Tight Like That, recorded live at Hugh's Room in Toronto in 2005, with British jazz legend Chris Barber sitting in.

His first blues/rock album of eight years, Mess Of Blues, will be released in Europe March 20, and in North America April 22. It's a joint project between the German label Ruf and the long-running Canadian imprint, Stony Plain.

Early last year, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissues from his legs, and, later, from both lungs. In the end, the disease won.

Healey leaves behind his wife Cristie, daughter Rachel (13) and son Derek (three), as well as his father and step-mother, and two sisters. Arrangement are pending.

Posted by grant on March 2, 2008 8:38 PM | Permalink