JEFF HEALEY’S LAST CALL IS AN INFORMAL AND UNDERSTATED TOUR DE FORCE OF JAZZ AND POP MUSIC FROM A GOLDEN ERA

Stony Plain releases a new jazz cd from one of canada’s most loved — and most missed — musicians, as his final jazz recording is released April 6

The late Jeff Healey built his reputation as a highly unconventional powerhouse rock blues guitarist who sold millions of records and who toured around the world.
But his passion was the joyful, low pressure pop music and classic jazz of the 20’s, 30’s and early 40’s. Now Stony Plain, which has issued five Jeff Healey CDs to date, is releasing Last Call, a 14-track collection of jazz on which Healey plays guitar, trumpet and sings, accompanied only by Ross Wooldridge, on piano and clarinet, and Drew Jurecka, on violin. The CD will be released April 6, 2010.
Throughout, Healey — who died almost two years ago (March 2, 2008) — multi-tracks guitar duets, vocals, and trumpet parts, while his accompanists create the spirit of the past with both accuracy and aplomb. The effect (to paraphrase Jelly Roll Morton) is “sweet, soft and plenty rhythm” — quiet but powerfully swinging.
In Canada, Stony Plain will also release a Jeff Healey Jazz Wizards concert on DVD on April 6. Beautiful Noise was produced in Toronto in January 2006 by Daniel K. Berman and S. Paul McNulty. The concert features 11 complete songs, with the Jazz Wizards’ full six-piece lineup, fronted by Healey on trumpet and guitar.

Healey’s story is well known. Blinded by a rare eye cancer (retinoblastoma) as a small child, he developed a passion for music, learned many instruments, and finally settled on the guitar, playing it unconventionally across his lap.
As his reputation as a power-packed blues-based player grew — first in the Toronto area and later nationally in Canada and internationally around the world — Healey continued to harbour his love for early American jazz and dance music, exemplified by his massive record collection of some 27,500 records, most of them original 78s that he collected assiduously on his worldwide travels. In the late 90’s he started a group he called the Jazz Wizards, playing — for the most part — trumpet, with some acoustic guitar.
While he continued to play blues rock gigs — particularly in Europe — Healey began to record in the “traditional” jazz style, releasing Adventures in Jazzland in 2002, and Among Friends two years later. A third classic jazz album, recorded live with British trombonist Chris Barber was released in 2006. Stony Plain (in Canada) and Ruf Records (world-wide) have released two rock blues albums since he died.

As he battled a variety of cancer outbreaks in the last two years of his life, he continued to play frequently at the club that carried his name in Toronto, and worked through the sessions that have resulted in Last Call. It’s a very different album from his other jazz CDs, with a repertoire that includes well known standards (“Deep Purple,” “Autumn in New York,” “Pennies from Heaven”) and more obscure songs from the past (“Holding My Honey’s Hand” and “You Can’t Pull the Wool Over My Eyes”)
Healey plays all the guitars throughout, adding trumpet parts from time to time, acknowledging his debt to Louis Armstrong. He also recreates guitar duets, recalling Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson, as well as offering a tribute to jazz violinist Joe Venuti, whose work is recreated by Drew Jurecka. Ross Wooldridge supplies subtle, perfectly constructed piano solos and accompaniment, as well as occasionally playing clarinet.
Most remarkable, however, are Healey’s vocals, which acknowledge one of his favourite vocalists, Bing Crosby. Last Call, Jeff Healey’s final jazz album, is a subtle, thoughtful and gentle collection of songs. It is a heart-warming reminder of what we all lost when he left us.

March 2, 2008

Following a lengthy struggle with cancer, Healey passes away on the eve of the release of a new blues rock album (His First Blues Album in 8 Years)

Jeff Healey, arguably one of the most distinctive guitar players of our time, died today (Sunday March 2, 2008) in St. Joseph’s Hospital, Toronto. He was 41, and leaves his wife, Cristie, daughter Rachel (13) and son Derek (three), as well as his father and step-mother, Bud and Rose Healey, and sisters Laura and Linda.

Funeral and memorial arrangements are pending.

Robbed of his sight as a baby due to a rare form of cancer, retino blastoma, and he started to play guitar when he was three, holding the instrument unconventionally across his lap. He formed his first band at 17, but soon formed a trio which was named the Jeff Healey Band.

After his appearance in the movie Road House, he was signed to Arista records, and in 1988 released the Grammy-nominated album See the Light, which included a major hit single, Angel Eyes. He earned a Juno Award in 1990 as Entertainer of the Year.

Two more albums emerged on Arista, with lessening success as the ’90s passed. Various “best-of” and live packages were released, and he recorded two more rock albums, before turning to his real love, classic American jazz from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.

By then, however, Healey was an internationally-known star who had played with dozens of musicians, including B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and recorded with George Harrison. Mark Knopfler and the late blues legend, Jimmy Rogers.

A family man with a three-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter he preferred to stay close to home. “I’ve traveled widely before - been there and done that,” he told friends, determined to avoid the lengthy, exhausting tours that marked his life in his twenties and early thirties.

A long-running CBC Radio series saw him in the role of disc jockey - My Kinda Jazz was a staple for a while, but in recent years he had hosted a programme with a similar name on Jazz-FM in Toronto. A highlight of his broadcasts was always the use of rare — and rarely heard — music from his 30,000-plus collection of 78-rpm records.