----- Original Message -----

From: Dan

To: irishrock@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 8:30 AM

Subject: [IrishRockers] Re: Jeff Healey dies in Toronto hospital

Sad news... on Rory Gallagher's birthday too, I believe.

Dan

--- In irishrock@yahoogroups.com, Flo Kraft <flkraft@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Media information / For immediate release
>
> Guitarist and bandleader
> Jeff Healey dies in Toronto hospital
>
> Following a lengthy struggle with cancer,
> Healey passes away on the eve of the
> release of a new blues rock album
>
> Jeff Healey, arguably one of the most distinctive guitar players of
our time, died today (Sunday March 2) 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.
> As his rock career wound down as the millennium came, he recorded a
series of three album of early jazz, playing trumpet as well as
acoustic guitar in a band he called Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards. The
most recent was It's Tight Like That, recorded live at Hugh's Room in
Toronto in 2005, with British jazz legend Chris Barber as guest star.
> At the time of his death he was about to see the release of his
first rock/blues album in eight years, Mess of Blues, which is being
released in Europe on March 20, and in Canada and the U.S. on April
22. The album was the result of a joint agreement between the German
label, Ruf Records, and Stony Plain, the independent Edmonton-based
label that has released his three jazz CDs.
> Mess of Blues was recorded in studios in Toronto, with two cuts
recorded at the Jeff Healey's Roadhouse in Toronto and two at a
concert in London England. The backup group on the upcoming CD — the
Healey's House Band — played with him regularly at the downtown
Roadhouse, and at a previous club bearing his name in the
Queen-Bathurst area.
> Early last year, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue
from his legs, and later from both lungs; aggressive radiation
treatments and chemotherapy, however, failed to halt the spread of the
disease.
> Despite his battle with cancer, he undertook frequent tours across
Canada with both his blues-based band and his jazz group; he was set
for a major tour in Germany and the U.K. and was to be a guest on the
BBC's famed Jools Holland Show in April.
> Remembered by his musicians — and his audiences — for his wry sense
of humour as well as his musical playfulness, Healey was a unique
musician who bridged different genres with ease and assurance.
>
>
> —end—
>
>
> For further information, please contact:
>
> Canada:
> Richard Flohil
> 416 351-1323 / 416 997-4788 rflohil@...
>
> Holger Petersen
> Stony Plain Records
> 780 468-6423 holger@...
>
>
> Europe
> Thomas Ruf.
> Ruf Records
> 011 49 (0)36087 / 92200 ruf@...
>
>
> United States
> Mark Pucci, MP Media
> 770-804-9555 mpmedia@...
>