Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards
About
Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards
"Man, he is really going to revolutionize the way the guitar can be played." When Stevie Ray Vaughan uttered those words after watching Jeff Healey perform, he wasn't being prophetic. He was simply stating a fact.Jeff Healey was born in Toronto on March 25, 1966 with a rare form of eye cancer called Retinoblastoma that left him blind at the age of one. He received his first guitar when he was three and learned to play it lap style because his hand was too small to grip the instrument's neck. Although unconventional, this lap top technique allows Healey to make unique string bends, thumb hammers, and stretches creating riffs that are very elastic and have a greater range than those of his contemporaries. When Jeff cuts loose on a solo, the effects are positively electrifying! By the age of six, he was singing and performing and by his teens he had played in several bands and explored numerous musical genres. His emerging recognition as a music prodigy gave him the opportunity to perform with such blues guitar legends as Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan and B. B. King.
In 1986, Jeff teamed up with drummer Tom Stephen and bassist Joe Rockman to form the Jeff Healey Band. Before they could release an album, Jeff, Tom and Joe were cast as the Double Deuce house band and supplied the soundtrack music for the Patrick Swayze movie "Road House." The bands first CD, 1988's "See the Light," brought instant wide- ranging fame, two hit singles and two million copies in sales. The early 1990's were hectic years for the band as they toured constantly and released three more formidable CDs "Hell to Pay" (1990), "Feel This" (1992) and "Cover to Cover" (1995). Their latest venture is "Get Me Some" (2000). The Jeff Healey Band has won a Juno Award for Canadian Entertainer of the year, has five other Juno Award nominations in various categories, two Grammy Award nominations and a long list of kudos from other prominent sources in the music business.
Recently, the Jeff Healey Band has taken a break to allow band members to catch their breath and to pursue other interests, which include managing the careers of artists such as Amanda Marshall through their company Forte Records & Productions. It has also given Jeff the opportunity to return to his first musical love, traditional golden era jazz. Since his teens, Healey has supplied expert commentary for an on-and-off program for CBC radio called "My Kinda Jazz" on which he plays cuts from his personal collection of twenty five thousand 78-rpm recordings (dating from 1917 through 1942) of early jazz masters. Jeff has also opened his own nightclub (Jeff Healey's Club) and can be found jamming regularly with friends in Toronto's resurging jazz scene. 2002 marks the inauguration of an exciting new musical project as he presents Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards to the world. The combo highlights Jeff on vocals, guitar, trumpet and valve trombone. Always evolving, Jeff Healey is one of Canada's most recognized and accomplished musicians and a well-rounded, first-class act all the way.
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Centennial Theatre
