Jeff Healey
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Healey lost his sight at the age of one, after developing eye cancer. He began playing guitar when he was three years old and began performing with his band Blues Direction at the age of 17. Healey formed the Jeff Healey Trio in 1985, adding bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen. The trio released one single on their own Forte record label, which led to a contract with Arista Records. The Jeff Healey Trio released their debut album, See the Light, in 1988 and the guitarist immediately developed a devoted following in lues-rock circles. Featuring the hit single Angel Eyes, the record went platinum in the U.S. While the Jeff Healey Trios subsequent records have been popular, none have been as successful as the debut.
As the 21st century dawned, Healey began to change his direction. He taught himself to play the trumpet and began to lean to the kind of traditional 1920s and 1930s jazz that had always fascinated him. He released two classic jazz albums, 2002s Among Friends and 2004s Adventures in Jazzland, on his own HealeyOphonic label, and while he continued to do some shows in his old lues-rock style, he increasingly gigged with his jazz combo, the Jazz Wizards. His first album of jazz to see wide release was Its Tight Like That, which appeared on Stony Plain in 2006. Healey continued in the raditional jazz idiom for both Among Friends and Adventures in Jazzland, released in 2007 on HealeyOphonic. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Al Campbell,
