Habe diese Email von der PR Lady von Jeff Healey bekommen: Ich bin völlig geschockt. Fass es nicht....habe mich so sehr auf das Konzert am 03.04 gefreut....
Guitarist and bandleader Jeff Healey dies in Toronto hospital.
.Following a lengthy struggle with cancer,Healey passes away on the eve oftherelease of a new blues rock album Jeff Healey, arguably one of the most distinctive guitar players of ourtime, died today (Sunday March 2) in St. Joseph’s Hospital, Toronto. He was41, and leaves his wife, Cristie, daughter Rachel (13) and son Derek(three), as well as his father and step-mother, Bud and Rose Healey, andsisters 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 instrumentunconventionally across his lap. He formed his first band at 17, but soonformed a trio which was named the Jeff Healey Band. After his appearance in the movie Road House, he was signed to Aristarecords, and in 1988 released the Grammy-nominated album See the Light,which included a major hit single, Angel Eyes. He earned a Juno Award in1990 as Entertainer of the Year.Two more albums emerged on Arista, with lessening success as the ’90spassed. Various “best-of” and live packages were released, and he recordedtwo more rock albums, before turning to his real love, classic American jazzfrom the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.
By then, however, Healey was an internationally-known star who had playedwith dozens of musicians, including B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, andrecorded 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 hepreferred to stay close to home. “I’ve traveled widely before — been thereand done that,” he told friends, determined to avoid the lengthy, exhaustingtours that marked his life in his twenties and early thirties. A long-running CBC Radio series saw him in the role of disc jockey — MyKinda Jazz was a staple for a while, but in recent years he had hosted aprogramme with a similar name on Jazz-FM in Toronto. A highlight of hisbroadcasts was always the use of rare — and rarely heard — music from his30,000-plus collection of 78-rpm records.As his rock career wound down as the millennium came, he recorded a seriesof three album of early jazz, playing trumpet as well as acoustic guitar ina band he called Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards. The most recent was It’s TightLike That, recorded live at Hugh’s Room in Toronto in 2005, with Britishjazz legend Chris Barber as guest star.
At the time of his death he was about to see the release of his firstrock/blues album in eight years, Mess of Blues, which is being released inEurope on March 20, and in Canada and the U.S. on April 22. The album wasthe result of a joint agreement between the German label, Ruf Records, andStony Plain, the independent Edmonton-based label that has released histhree jazz CDs. Mess of Blues was recorded in studios in Toronto, with two cuts recorded atthe Jeff Healey’s Roadhouse in Toronto and two at a concert in LondonEngland. The backup group on the upcoming CD — the Healey’s House Band —played with him regularly at the downtown Roadhouse, and at a previous clubbearing his name in the Queen-Bathurst area. Early last year, Healey underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue fromhis legs, and later from both lungs; aggressive radiation treatments andchemotherapy, however, failed to halt the spread of the disease.
Despite his battle with cancer, he undertook frequent tours across Canadawith both his blues-based band and his jazz group; he was set for a majortour in Germany and the U.K. and was to be a guest on the BBC’s famed JoolsHolland Show in April.Remembered by his musicians — and his audiences — for his wry sense ofhumour as well as his musical playfulness, Healey was a unique musician whobridged different genres with ease and assurance.
Toronto - Healey erlag gestern Abend in einem Krankenhaus in Toronto einer Krebserkrankung, erklärte sein Bandkollege Colin Bray. Seinen internationalen Durchbruch feierte der blinde Gitarrist 1988 mit der Jeff Healey Band und dem Debüt-Album "See the Light", auf dem auch die Hit-Single "Angel Eyes" enthalten war. Schnell erspielte sich Healey, der seine Gitarre sitzend spielte, den Ruf, mit den besten Blues-Gitarristen seiner Generation mithalten zu können. Sein kommerzieller Erfolg war jedoch nur von kurzer Dauer. Seine Karriere gehört dennoch zu den erstaunlichsten und mutigsten der Musikgeschichte.
AP Gitarrist Healey (2000 im New Yorker Central Park): Musikalisches Wunderkind Healey kämpfte, seit er ein Jahr alt war, gegen den Krebs. Damals verlor er wegen einer seltenen Krebsart sein Augenlicht. Das Gitarrenspiel brachte er sich als Teenager selbst bei, indem er sich das Instrument auf seine Knie legte. Mit seinem einzigartigen Stil galt er als musikalisches Wunderkind und stand mit Größen wie George Harrison, B.B. King und Stevie Ray Vaughan auf der Bühne.
Ende der neunziger Jahre wandte sich Healey vom Blues einem weiteren Genre zu, das ihn seit seiner Kindheit fasziniert hatte: dem traditionellen Jazz der zwanziger und dreißiger Jahre. Wiederum brachte er sich selbst bei, Trompete zu spielen und veröffentlichte in den vergangenen Jahren mehrere Jazz-Alben auf seinem eigenen Label.
Zuletzt hatte sich Healey mehreren Operationen unterzogen, um Tumore aus seinen Lungen und seinem Bein entfernen zu lassen. Er hinterlässt eine Frau und zwei Kinder.
... Ich betone hier nur: Er verstarb mit nur 41 Jahren... Leute, wenn ihr noch träumen könnt, dann versucht diese, sofern es euch nur irgendwie möglich ist, sie zu verwirklichen... Es wäre einfach schade drum. Der Gevater Tod kommt manchmal schneller als man denkt... ---------------------------------------------------------------
By the way... Toller Song und ein toller Videoclip!!! John
Lieber mal ein Narr für einige Minuten sein - als ein Depp für die Ewigkeit... ;-)
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