Jeff Healey

On March 5, we had heard that Patrick Swayze had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and that things were dire. A few days after that we heard that Patrick Swayze was reported to be responding well to treatment and is still flying his plane.

Yay Patrick!! Go Dude Go!!

Only Time will tell us how this story turns out. In the mean time, we have lost quite a few brilliantly talented people this month. (It is March 22 at the time of this writing.)

Gary Gygax: The inventor of Dungeons and Dragons games and also the concept of role playing games.

Authur C. Clarke: Author of the '2001: A Space Odessy' and many other space related projects. First suggested to potential for communications satelites.

These are just a couple of the others to pass this month and so Jeff is in good company in the 'just passed' orientation room.

What would you ask if you could talk to any of these people?

We would want to know: What did you love most about your life?

In Gratitude
Wayne and Kat

Healey's appearance in the movie 'Road House' with Patrick Swayze, nabbed him a record deal with Arista records.

In 1988 Healey released the album 'See the Light' which was nominated for a Grammy and included the hit single 'Angel Eyes.'

See the Light, the Grammy nomination and Angel Eyes propelled Healey into the international spotlight. Healey then toured Canada, Europe and the USA and went on the release 3 more albums with Arista records before things started cooling off as the 90's passed.

Healey became an internationally-known star playing with dozens of musicians, including B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and recording with George Harrison. Mark Knopfler and the late blues legend, Jimmy Rogers.

Healey had a hidden passion that was left unexplored publically until after the 'See the Light' phenomenon. He did however, finally get to spend some time with classic American jazz from the '20s, '30s and '40s as the rock scene attention tapered off.

From there, Healey became a disc jockey for a long running CBC Radio series 'My Kinda Jazz.' More recently he had hosted a program with a similar flavor 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.

With the approach of a new millinium Healey's rock career tapered off and left him with some time to record a series of three albums of early jazz where he played trumpet as well as acoustic guitar. The most recent jazz recording (2005) was called 'It's Tight Like That' which was recorded live at Hugh's Room in Toronto.

Healey played jazz with a band he formed called 'Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards.'

Jeff Healey's first rock/blues album in eight years, Mess of Blues, is set to be released on March 20th in Europe and April 22 in Canada and the USA.

It's really sad that Healey didn't survive to see the release of this album and it is wonderful that he left us with one last gift of his blues and rock brilliance.

The album was created jointly by the the German label, Ruf Records, and an independent Edmonton (Canada) based label, Stony Plain which had released his three jazz CDs.

Two cuts on the album 'Mess of Blues' was recorded in Jeff Healey's Roadhouse in Toronto and two where recorded at a concert in London England while the rest where recorded in studios in Toronto

Healey used 'the Healey's House Band,' who played with him regularly at his Roadhouse, as the back up band on the new album.

The same band also played with Healey at a club he previously owned in Toronto.

In 1995 Lisa Zimmer had the honor of sitting down and having a chat with Jeff Healey. The resulting interview has never been published until now. We are delighted and honored that Lisa would allow us to be the publishers of this rare and unique gem. Thank you Lisa! Without further ado, please enjoy this never before published interview of the man of the hour: Jeff Healey.

LZ: Your last tour was in support of your recent album, Cover to Cover, and that's just what it is - covering a wide range of songs from the Beatles and Hendrix to Stealer's Wheel to Big Joe Williams. However, for this interview, I'd like to focus strictly on the blues, if you don't mind.

JH: Sure.

LZ: The blues mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, however, a catch-all phrase that has universally been agreed upon is that the 'blues is a feeling' . Jeff Healey, 'what does the blues mean to you?'

JH: I suppose, it's a feeling, it's not something that I've ever really tried to analyze. I think what it is, especially now, is one of the best forms of, sort of, open improvisation that we have; although improvisation falls into a lot of different categories and different styles of music. But I mean you've got 12 bars and a pretty standard change around those and you could sort of do what you want with it.

LZ: On this album, you've done your own interpretations of songs by Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and Big Joe Williams. I'll assume that with your love of the blues, that it was difficult to narrow down your original blues song list. Are those particular blues performers in your 'Top 5' or did you select the individual songs solely on their musical merits?

JH: It was more of a song thing. In putting the whole album together, in general, we did close to over 40 different songs. And then, it was just a matter of what we felt and the record company, in combination of what were the best performances; and we put those out.

LZ: When most people first discover the blues, it's from early British bands or perhaps, Johnny Winter or the Allman Brothers. I'm curious, which version of "Stop Breakin' Down'' did you first hear: the Rolling Stones, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) or the original by Robert Johnson?

JH: I was only familiar with Robert Johnson's when we did it. I wanted to do a Robert Johnson tune, but didn't want to do 'Crossroads' or 'Walkin' the Blues' which are done to death. A good friend of mine, Steve LaVere, who runs the Robert Johnson Foundation, suggested to me that we think about 'Stop Breakin' Down' cause it hadn't been covered that much; and it worked out pretty well.

LZ: Throughout your career, you've collaborated with some very impressive rock performers. Have you ever performed with any of the blues greats?

JH: Well, I've been fortunate to run into B.B. King a couple of times a year and we've ended up performing quite a bit. I guess, I've ended up on stages in various settings with a lot of blues artists, like Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown; and, God, I'd have to sit down and think a bit about the others.

LZ: If by some otherworldly blues miracle you could trade licks with one of the blues masters who has passed on, who would that be?

JH: I have no idea, off the top of my head.. I think blues-wise, one of the best, if not the best, is B.B.; and I've been very fortunate to know him as well as I do and to see him as often as I do, so that's been quite a thrill.

LZ: A while back you had the rare opportunity to meet with President Clinton. What was the occasion?

JH: A long, sort of complicated thing. But I went down with Ronnie Hawkins, who had been invited down to play at the Canadian Embassy, and there was a chance that the President was supposed to show up and play with him. But he wasn't able to do that, so, we were all invited over to the White House beforehand and got to meet him.

LZ: Was it like talking to the 'President of the United States' or was it more like talking to a musician with the same passion as you?

JH: [Chuckles] As rushed as it was, it was rather presidential.

LZ: I was going to ask you if you got a chance to trade some riffs with the President, but obviously not.

JH: No. But it would have been fun.

LZ: In 1989 you released a long-form live video from London. I've worn out my VCR heads from playing it so many times. Do you plan to release another live long form video, say, from this tour?

JH: Well there hasn't been any plans on that, but you never know. Tom Stephen [drums] and Joe Rockman [bass] really pack-rat a lot of stuff like that- video recorders, odds and ends like that, so you never know what might happen.

LZ: You have an extensive record collection, to the tune of 20,000 78s and thousands of CDs. What a contrast in recording formats. When did you become a serious collector?

JH: Most of my life, I suppose. My collection is mostly based around jazz and popular music, more of a jazz thing, from the '20s and '30s.

LZ: What percentage is blues, the purist type?

JH: There isn't a lot of purist stuff, my interest is throughout the '20s and '30s. There was so much of, so much more of a jazz and blues collaboration. Bessie Smith had some of the best jazz people accompany her, as an example.

LZ: In the Patrick Swayze movie, 'Roadhouse', you had a fairly prominent role and you also contributed to it's soundtrack. Are there any plans to do any more soundtracks or appear in any upcoming movies?

JH: Nobody has made any offers, and we have been fairly busy. We haven't had the opportunity to beat down doors to do something like that. And that film was, more or less, offered to us; and we just assume that that's how you come about them. So if anybody was to suggest something, we certainly would listen to it.

LZ: Well, Jeff what is the next stop on the tour?

JH: Roseville, we're playing some California dates right now.

LZ: Thanks for the blues chat, Jeff, and good luck on the rest of the tour.

JH: Are you going to stay for the whole show?

LZ: Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world.

JH: Thank you.

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Lisa Zimmer is a music journalist and writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.
Over the years, she has conducted numerous interviews with recording acts such as Bob Weir (Grateful Dead); Eric Burdon; Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown); Canned Heat; and Francis Clay (Muddy Waters' band); and her reviews of live performances and an array of articles about music have been featured in a range of international print publications.

She is also co-producer of the annual Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins Birthday Tribute show, broadcast over a Bay Area radio station, including co-conducting interviews with musicians such as Tommy Shannon; Chris Layton; Reese Wynans; Doyle Bramhall II; Lonnie Mack; Johnny Winter; Robert Cray; and Buddy Guy. Other aspects of the music business in which she has been involved are record retail; album cover design; photography; music merchandising; and publicity.

Much sadness is felt today here in our apartment at the passing of Jeff Healey. He has served as an example to us in how to live life inspite of the challenges.

We want to send love and light to Jeff's family and to any fans that are feeling grief about his passing.

We will miss the many opportunities to see Jeff play that we have enjoyed in the past. He always seem to show up at community and rock festivals all around the province and we always seemed to score a spot near the stage. What fun it has been and how much we will miss it...

Goodbye Jeff. You will be missed, honored and continue to shine a light on our world.

Here's to hoping your next journey is a little easier for you. You deserve a rest!